MrSEI'MS. 



35 



A. LORD DERBY MUSEUM. 



Zoological Department. 



(a) Genebal. 



The Director lias much pleasure in testifying to the care and 

 attention to duty given by all the members of the Staff. 



Several dredging excursions have heen undertaken during the yea) 

 to the estuary of the Mersey and the Irish Sea, for the purpose of 

 collecting specimens for the Local Collection of Marine Fauna, with 

 which the Museum has for a long time heen very poorly provided. 

 These excursions have heen rendered possible through the kindness 

 of the City Engineer's Department, the Sanitary Sub-Committee 

 having given permission for the Director to occasionally place 

 members of the staff on hoard 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 sea- 

 water from beyond] the North-West Lightship for supplying the 

 Aquarium. The thanks of the Committee arc due to Captain Griffiths 

 for his most willing help and courtesy during not only the tiups on 

 which the officers have accompanied him, but on other occasions when 

 he has brought in objects of intei'est to the Museum which have fallen 

 in his way. These excursions have already resulted in the acquisition 

 of some hundreds of specimens, mostly unrepresented previously in 

 the collection, including many very rare forms. Among these, one 

 species of Hsh (C alHonymua maculatus) was taken on several occasions 

 which had not previously been recorded from the Irish Sea. "When 

 the identification of this species by Mr. Clubb was made known, it 

 was discovered that specimens had been obtained previously by the 

 officers of the Lancashire Sea Fisheries, but they had remained 

 unrecognised, and had been stored away in a jar at University 

 College, along with the common species (('. lyra). 



In the month of May the new extension buildings were finally 

 handed over by the Contractors to the Committee, and in July the 

 bronze-steel cases, designed by Mr. Ashworth (of Messrs. Haigh and 

 Co.) and the Director, for the reception of the collections, began to 

 lie delivered. 



