26 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



tails, along with stuffed birds, cases of i 

 insects, and relics from the prehistoric 

 ages ; clubs and other weapons from j 

 the South Seas, and so on. All very 

 interesting in. their places, and if well 

 arranged, catalogued, or labelled, such 

 a collection is always worth looking at. 

 For scientific purposes we would much 

 prefer a museum containing specimens 

 of the fauna of the locality only ; and 

 we would urge upon the curators of such 

 institutions that however much they 

 may be bound to cater for the taste (or 

 want of taste) of the general public, 

 by introducing stolen images of hichous 

 form, or other curiosities, they should 

 always endeavour to have some depart- j 

 merit of the collection for the illustra- 

 tion of the Natural History of the 

 district. To the private collector we 

 would also say, while you do your best 

 to gather together a perfect collection 

 of the fauna of your country, in what- 

 ever department you are interested, or 

 even if you extend your researches 

 beyond Britain, we would urge you to 

 have, separate and distinct, a collection 

 if it be but a small one, of the species 

 that occur in your own immediate 

 neighbourhood. To visitors from a 

 distance such a collection would be 

 greatly more interesting than an 

 ordinary cabinet with full series of all 

 the species, for we are all familar 

 enough with most of the' British species, 

 and most of collections are but repiti- 

 tions of each other, while to the rising 

 generation what we suggest would be of 

 great service. We were much struck the 

 other day, when looking over a small 



collection of this sort, of the lepid- . 

 opterous fauna of the Huddcrsfield 

 district, with the absence of such 

 butterflies as the Meadow Brown ( Si 

 janira), the Small Heath (O. Pam- 

 phUus), and many others that we had 

 always believed were found everywhere. 

 Why do they not occur there ? We 

 can suggest no reason. Can any of 

 our readers ? Many important ques- 

 tions arise in this way, and while the 

 appearance of certain species in a dis- 

 trict may generally be explained, their 

 absence is often more difficult to ac- 

 account for. If we had more local 

 knowledge, more and better local lists, 

 to compare one with another, many of 

 these difficulties might perhaps be ex- 

 plained. Mr. Bignell, of Plymouth, 

 has furnished us with some carefully 

 prepared lists of the Geometrce and 

 Pyralidiuoi of his neighbourhood, and 

 no doubt other readers would be glad 

 to do the same. We propose, there- 

 fore, to set apart a small portion of our 

 paper — perhaps a column — for the in- 

 sertion of such local lists, which will 

 be continued from week to week until 

 completed. Mr. Bignell's lists seem to 

 us to be models of what such things 

 : should be — brief, yet full, and we shall 

 I be glad if anyone preparing such papers 

 ! for us will take as much care as has 

 | been taken in the preparation of these. 

 Be sure to include every species, and 

 let your notes be as short as possible. 

 I We cannot spare much space, and 

 ' while we wish ail to be said that is 

 important, the fewer words that are 

 ! used the better in a list of the kind. 



