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A Penny Weekly Magazine of Natural History. 



No. 57. 



NOVEMBEB '27th, 1880. 



Vol. 2. 



LOCAL COLLECTIONS. 



HO one ever thinks the capture of 

 Pierls brassicce or rapm in their 

 own kitchen garden, on a sunny day, 

 and at the proper time for their 

 appearance, to be a fact worth record- 

 ing : yet Entomologists would be 

 puzzled to account for it, if there were 

 certain districts where cabbage gardens 

 abounded, and other circumstances 

 seemed suitable, that ubiquitous species 

 like these were entirely absent. Hence 

 while records of the ordinary occur- 

 rence of common species are not worth 

 making, no list of the fauna of a district 

 I would be complete without them. Local 

 lists of species, when perfect, are of 

 (considerable value to the student, and 

 many things have been learned by their 

 comparison that otherwise would have 

 remained unknown. Certain species, 

 for instance, are known to be attached 

 to certain geological formations, — one 

 occurring on chalk, another on peat. 

 Some species occur only on the sea 

 coast ; some only on moorland, at 

 considerable elevations above the sea. 

 Localities of different character having 



certain species attached to them with 

 such certainty that there would be no 

 difficulty for an experienced collector 

 to describe the character of the district 

 in which a certain fauna occurred. 

 Mr. Stainton propounded a question in 

 Marine Zoology many years ago, a*s 

 one that might be asked at some future 

 date. He supposed a bottle of water, 

 containing marine animalcuhe, to be 

 given to the student, who was to dis- 

 cover by the species it contained what 

 was the latitude and longitude of the 

 vessel when the water was taken from 

 the ocean. A similar question could 

 be answered in reference to our own 

 Lepidopterous fauna without much 

 difficulty ; and the more complete the 

 collection, the more correctly could 

 the entomologist approach the centre 

 around which the species had been 

 found. 



In most of towns of any size a 

 museum will be found, and very many 

 of these contain a heterogeneous 

 collection of odds and ends from all 

 parts of the globe, with little attempt 

 at arrangement or classification. A 

 heathen god stolen from some Indian 

 temple ; a kitten with six legs or two 



