MUSEUMS. 13 
A. LORD DERBY MUSEUM. 
ZooLoGicAL DEPARTMENT. 
(a) GENERAL. 
Several dredging excursions have been undertaken during the 
year to the estuary of the Mersey and the Irish Sea, for the purpose 
of obtaining specimens for the Local Collection of Marine Fauna. 
Through the kindness of the Sanitary Sub-Committee, the City 
Engineer's Department gave permission for the Director to 
occasionally place members of the staff on board the “ Beta,” 
when on its periodic visits to the “ Deposit Grounds,” near the 
North-West Lightship. This vessel has been utilised also for the 
purpose of bringing fresh seawater from beyond the North-West 
Lightship for supplying the Aquarium. The thanks of the Com- 
mittee are due to Captain Griffiths for his most willing help and 
courtesy during the trips on which the officers have accompanied 
him, and also for so frequently bringing in objects of interest to the 
Museum which have fallen in his way on other occasions. 
Several of the unique specimens of birds in the Museum were, 
with the consent of the Committee, exhibited at the International 
Ornithological Congress in London. Of these one was a specimen of 
Emeu from Australia long suspected by the Director to belong to an 
extinct species known as V/romeus ater. He was, therefore, glad of 
the opportunity of submitting the specimen to the assembled 
ornithologists of the world, and to have his identification of the 
species confirmed. The Liverpool specimen, with one in the Natural 
History Museum in Paris, are, therefore, the only existing skins of 
this species of Emeu. A skeleton in Florence is the only other 
remains of the bird known. 
The Science Cabinets, containing properly identified and labelled 
specimens, on selected subjects, have been distributed to the various 
Elementary Schools in the City as in former years; applications 
have also become more numerous for specimens for object lessons 
(mainly Natural History), and for the series of Technical Appliances 
on loan from the Museums. The increase in the applications for 
Museum specimens has necessitated considerable additions to the 
