ANNUAL REPORT. 33 



hospitably received at the Tiptree Heath Fruit Farm by Mr. Wilkin and his 

 family. At the A.nnual Fungus meeting on October 6th we had the great 

 benefit of the assistance of Dr. Cooke, Mr. Massee, F.L.S., Mr. R. Paulson, 

 Mr. F. O. Pickard-Cambridge, and Mr. Frank Smith The Council are fully 

 sensible of the honour conferred upon the Club by the Countess of Warwick 

 in consenting to open the Museum on October i8th and the ceremony was 

 rendered the more valuable by the excellent address delivered by her Lady- 

 ship on that occasion. The thanks of the Council are also due to Prof. 

 Meldola for the address delivered by him at the opening ceremony, and to 

 Mr. E. N. Buxton for kindly taking the chair at the meeting on December 8th 

 in support of the Forest Museum. An experiment was made on July 20th 

 and 2ist to interest the members in the collecting work of the Museum by 

 means of two dredging excursions in the Colne Estuary. The Council regret 

 that financially the experiment was unsuccessful, although otherwise the 

 meetings were exceedingly interesting ; there were, however, some drawbacks 

 in weather and possibly other reasons for non-attendance, and the experiment 

 might well be repeated with a somewhat varied programme. The whole of 

 the above-named meetings have been, or will be, fully reported in our Journal. 



Essex Naturalist. — Members are referred to the paragraph on this 

 subject in the last Annual Report. Two parts were published within the 

 financial year, and much matter is in type ready for another part. The Council 

 has again to thank Mr. H. A. Cole for some drawings for reproduction and 

 Mr. F. W. Reader for assistance in getting matter ready for press. Mr. 

 Reader has also kindly presented the blocks for use in the memoir of General 

 Pitt-Rivers. But as this memoir will not be published until igoi further 

 reference to the matter will be made in next year's report. 



Essex Museum of Natural History. — With respect to the Central 

 Museum the Curator again finds it desirable to postpone a full report until 

 the various collections are in a more forward state of arrangement. Many 

 changes will be made during the ensuing summer, and the cases now being 

 made, or refitted, will much improve the .Museum. The members are again 

 referred to the Museum Handbook, No. 5, and to the various reports in the 

 Essex Naturalist which contain most of the business details. The build- 

 ing was finished in the early part of the year and in April the temporary 

 premises at Forest Gate were given up, and the whole of the collections, 

 cabinets and cases with the books, were removed to the new Museum. Mr. 

 Passmore Edwards' munificient donation of ;^i,ooo enabled the Municipal 

 Technical Instruction Committee to fit up the very handsome Museum wall- 

 cases and floor-cases now in the Museum. As soon as the furniture was in 

 position, the Curator commenced the preliminary arrangement of the collec- 

 tions, so as to get the space available at least planned out before the date fixed 

 for the opening of the Museum. In this high-pressure work he was greatly 

 assisted by Mr. W. H. Dalton, Mr. J. E. Harting, Mr. H. A. Cole, and Mr. 

 F. W. Reader. Mr. Dalton commenced the arrangement of the students' 

 geological collections, and Mr. Harting put together and presented to the 

 Club the very interesting collection of birds and trappings to illustrate the 

 modern practice of Hawking which now adorns the Central Hall. A great 

 many birds and mammalia were obtained and preserved by Mr. Pettitt and 

 Mr. Burton, the Club's taxidermists, and a commencement was made with 



