Minutes of Court at Black's Cakix. 3 



or purchased from older collections. The authorities of the Museum 

 have demanded a full and prompt investigation of the whole matter, 

 that the entire falsity of the charges made against the Museum can be 

 demonstrated. The ornithologists of America have been the leading 

 promoters of all movements looking toward the preservation of bird 

 life, and have done more to protect the avifauna of the country than 

 all other agencies combined. The ornithologists of the Carnegie 

 Museum have not been behind their brethren in their efforts to pre- 

 serve and protect bird life, and to charge them with the wanton and 

 wholesale butchery of birds is to utter a libel against them, as can be 

 easily demonstrated. 



The formal presentation of the reproduction of the skeleton of 

 Diplodociis carnegii has upon conference with the Director of the 

 British Museum and Mr. Carnegie been deferred until May, 1905. 

 The reason for not installing the specimen in the British Museum in 

 August of the present year, as was originally proposed, is the fact that 

 at that time it would have been impossible to secure a representative 

 gathering of the Trustees of the Museum and of other scientific men 

 as was desired by Professor E. Ray Lankester, and no other date could 

 be fixed which would entirely suit the convenience of Mr. Carnegie 

 until the time designated. The restoration has been completed and 

 the bones are to be shipped to the British Museum, where they will 

 be kept until arrangements can be made for the erection of the 

 skeleton upon the site which has been designated in the Hall of 

 Reptiles. 



A NU.MBER of beautifully mounted specimens of mammals have 

 been prepared for exhibition by Messrs. Webster and Lockwood. The 

 arrangement of these exhibits in anything like scientific order is at 

 present impossible owing to the crowded condition of the exhibition 

 cases. All this will be remedied in the new building, the founda- 

 tions for which are being laid. 



The entomologists of the Museum have been making extensive col- 

 lections of the micro-lepidoptera of Western Pennsylvania. A num- 

 ber of beautifully prepared specimens have been secured and a sub- 

 stantial beginning has been made looking toward the formation of a 

 complete collection of these interesting, but little studied creatures. 



