19 



Opening of the Museum on Tuesdays. 



From the commencement of its history the Museum has been open to 

 the public four days in the week, and closed two days for the purposes 

 of cleaning, arrangement, and the convenience of students, for whom 

 the Library and Museum Act required one day to be specially set apart. 

 Recently this arrangement has been altered by the Committee, the 

 Public being admitted on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, 

 and Saturdays ; Fridays only being reserved as a closed day. This 

 arrangement will doubtless be appreciated by visitors. 



Pictorial Groups. 



The mounting of stuffed specimens in groups rather than on separate 

 and isolated stands has been continued. The Cranes, Bustards, and 

 Trumpeters have been so treated ; also the Sheathbills, BoatbiUs, and 

 other less known but marked forms of wading and swimming birds. Of 

 these the Cranes are the largest and best known, and the following 

 particulars may be of interest. 



The Cranes are gregarious, and those inhabiting the Northern Hemi- 

 sphere are eminently migratory. During their migrations they fly in 

 V-like array like flocks of -wild geese. They are mainly vegetable feeders. 



They are remarkable for their shrill, clarion-like calls and for the 

 singular grace and beauty of their movements. Especially noticeable for 

 the elegance and orderliness of their deportment were the Stanley Cranes, 

 so named after the 13th Earl of Derby. No one who saw them in their 

 living state at Knowsley will forget their stately minuet-like dances 

 accompanied by their own not unmusical voices on their law^n-like 

 enclosures, and their jealous guard against interference by keepers or 

 visitors. 



The breeding of Cranes in confinement was not known until the Stanley 

 Cranes bred at Knowsley. For fear of neglect on the part of the parent, 

 the eggs were placed under the more reliable nursing of large domestic hens. 

 This at first occurred so far on in the year that the young birds became 

 distorted and bow-legged, owing to the increasing length of the autumn 

 nights and the enforced cramped position for so many hours under their 

 foster parents. Year by year, however, the Cranes laid earlier imtil at 



