CURATOR AND LIBRARIAN’S REPORT. 
In submitting this Report, your Curator has pleasure in stating that, 
for the most part, the additions to the Society’s Museum during the past 
year are of a most important character. 
An unusually fine specimen of the Black Rhinoceros (Atelodus bicornts), 
shot by His GRACE THE DUKE OF WESTMINSTER in East Africa, has been 
presented by His Grace to the Society’s Museum. The colour of this animal 
is not black as its name implies, but a dirty brown, and the name is only 
given to it to distinguish it from its enormous relative, the Burchells or White 
Rhinoceros, an animal which has, I believe, never yet been seen alive in 
captivity, and as it is now nearly extinct, most probably never will. The 
living species of Rhinoceros are native only to Africa and Southern Asia, 
although, as shown by geological evidence, animals of the kind were once 
very widely distributed ; and some of them inhabited Great Britain. The 
group is known to have originated in North America. The common Indian 
species ranges from Bengal to Cochin China, and is distinguished by the 
possession of a single horn upon the nose, and armour-like folds in the 
thick skin. 
The additions to the birds includes a specimen of the Hoopoe (Upupa 
epops, Linn.), procured at Saltney in August 1906, and presented by MR. T. H. 
HIGNETT. Two specimens are recorded in Dr, W. H. Dobie’s List of Birds 
of Cheshire and North Wales (Proceedings IV., p. 310). The range of this 
species outside the British Isles is generally distributed throughout Southern 
Europe, and nesting in the Mediterranean countries, and in Central Europe, 
as far north as Denmark and Southern Sweden. The winter home of the 
Hoopoe is in North-eastern Africa; the Central Asian individuals doubtless 
winter in North-western India. 
Another addition worthy of special mention is that of the Hobby Hawk 
(Falco subbuteo, Linn.), procured at Tarvin, near Chester, in August 1906, 
and presented by MR. ARTHUR NEWSTEAD. This is a migratory species, 
and is found most usually in the southern, western, and midland counties 
of Great Britain, from May to September. 
A new Life-history Group of the Puffin (Fratercula arctica, Linn.) has 
been prepared and mounted by your Curator from material and specimens 
collected on Puffin Island, where an isolated colony of these birds nest 
annually. 
A specimen of the Large-tailed Blue Butterfly ( Lampides beticus, Linn.) 
has been presented to the Society’s collections of Lepidoptera by its captor, 
Mr. J. W. MAcFIE. This specimen was taken at Heswall in 1886 or 1887. 
