INSECTS
uncultivated, and the greater part of this remnant is being yearly dissipated as 'peat-moss litter' over the entire kingdom.
Risley and Carrington Mosses, which however are strictly outside the county, are in no better condition from an entomological point of view, and their special fauna and flora will no doubt within a few years become a memory merely.
The 'doughs' or narrow gorges between the hills westward of Manchester, often well wooded, were favourite haunts of the older collectors, but of these few would now repay a visit from any entomologist.
The famous 'Stalybrushes' was a locality of this kind, and though strictly in Cheshire may be considered almost as one of the Lancashire collecting grounds. Here a wooded glen runs up between the hills a couple of miles from Staleybridge and opens out on the wild moorlands of the Peak. This was the favourite locality of Jethro Tinker above mentioned. Of late years however reservoirs have been erected in the valley, the trees cut down, and but little of the wild charm of the place and but few of the special insects now remain. Many of the favourite resorts of the old Manchester collectors, such as the Bollin valley, Dunham Park, and Delamere Forest, are in Cheshire. These localities have undergone but little change and are still most prolific hunting grounds, but they can hardly be considered or described as Lancashire collecting grounds.
Trafford Park near Manchester, lately opened to the public, although much disfigured by various 'works' as well as by the ship canal, has been found by Dr. Bailey (formerly of Pendleton) to be an excellent collecting ground for Coleoptera.
The moors and mosses round Bolton have been explored by Mr. Stott of that town, and the Southport district has been exhaustively worked for Coleoptera by Dr. Chaster.
Further north the researches of Messrs. Threlfall and Hodgkinson of Preston have made Witherslack a name familiar to all Lepidopterists. Witherslack and Arnside is a district of low limestone hills, woods, and mosses a few, miles north-east of Grange and extending partly into Westmorland. The locality is entomologically very rich and is singular in maintaining a few species of Lepidoptera which are of quite southern distribution.
Near Preston the district of Red Scar has been worked with great success for Lepidoptera by Mr. J. R. Charnley of Preston, and the Rev. A. M. Moss (now of Norwich) has studied and recorded the same order as it occurs about Windermere.
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
In most of the museums of the county there exist collections of insects of more or less importance. The town museums of Liverpool, Manchester, Preston, Warrington and Bolton may be specially mentioned. The best collection of Lepidoptera is probably the 'Cooke' collection of Liverpool. This includes the collections of N. Cooke and E. Birchall
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