20 



An increase in the number of children and young persons, evidently 

 resulting from the use of the Circulating Collections, has long been 

 noticed, especially on Saturdays. 



Several meetings of the Geological Association, for lecture purposes 

 in the Museum, have taken place on Saturday afternoons by arrangement, 

 and have been addressed by their own members, by the Eev. H. H. 

 Higgins, Mr. F. P. Marrat, and the Curator. 



Students from the Training College, Mount Pleasant, from Wallasey 

 Grammar School, and children from various schools, have made special 

 visits of inspection to the Museum. 



The Cooke Bequest of British Lepidoptera. 



Dr. J. W. Ellis has kindly continued his services in re-arranging this 

 valuable collection, successive drawers of which are exhibited at the 

 monthly meetings of the Lancashire and Cheshire Entomological Society, 

 which take place within the building. 



Pictorial Groups. 



The mounting of stuffed specimens, so as to show, where possible, the 

 male, female, and young with natural surroundings, and artistically dis- 

 played, was commenced in the Museum as far back as 1865 with a group 

 of the Common Bald Coot. Other groups have been similarly mounted 

 from time to time for several years past. Among the latest are Pictorial 

 groups of the Common Pheasant, Gold and Amherst Pheasants, the 

 Talegalla or so-called Brush Turkey, and other Mound-making Birds of 

 Australia, New Guinea, and neighbouring islands ; (birds which leave 

 their eggs to incubate by the heat produced by the decaying vegetable 

 matter of which the mounds are more or less composed) ; groups of 

 Guillemots and other Sea-birds ; also Chamois and Ibexes from the 

 Caucasus, and examples of all the so-called Flying Mammals. Such 

 groups arrest the attention, give life to a collection, and add greatly to 

 the instructiveness of the specimens so displayed. 



Several of these, as also other objects of interest, and recent acquisi- 

 tions, have been exhibited at the meetings and the Soiree of the 

 Associated Societies of Liverpool. 



