THE HANCOCK J*IUSEUI\t AND ITS HISTORY 



value, because Mr. Wingate is the only serious student and 

 collector of the Diptera in the North of England ; and a large 

 volume written by him and published last year by the Society 

 forms the only introduction in English to the study of these 

 insects. To Mr. Geo. E. Crawhall the museum has been in- 

 debted for many additions to the bird collection, for some 

 excellent examples of British mammals, and some good 

 ethnological objects. Other large additions to the ethnology 

 gallery have been made by Mr. George Allan, of Gateshead, 

 and the Rev. R. Stewart Wright; these two donors between 

 them have practically equipped the African section of the 

 gallery. 



Extremely valuable acquisitions have also been made in 

 the section devoted to fossils. Button's classical collection 

 of coal measure plants was referred to in a previous article ; 

 it was presented by the Mining Institute of Newcastle 

 while the new museum was being fitted up. Near it in the 



Thomas Atthey. 



same room is another noted set of fossils, the Atthey collection 

 of fish and amphibian remains from the shale above the Low 

 Main seam at Newsham Colliery. This bed of shale yielded 

 a surprising abundance of interesting and unique fossils, and 



