IVlll REPORT ON MUSEUM WORK 



new system. On the wiid-flovver counter we have usually had 

 during the summer a good show of the more conspicuous 

 flowers of the season ; for supplies we have been indebted 

 principally to Mr. Randle B. Cooke. 



The greatly increased attendance of visitors to the Museum, 

 both on public holidays and at ordinary times, is a noticeable 

 and pleasing change as compared with the years before I went 

 away. ' It gives further encouragement to those parts of our 

 work which are designed especially for the benefit of the 

 public. In this connexion my father's very successful experi- 

 ment in getting boys and girls to answer papers of questions 

 has been a valuable development and one that should 

 certainly be continued. 



Some noteworthy acquisitions have been made during the 

 year by donation or bequest. Col. Adamson has given us 

 de Niceville's work on the butterflies of India, and also the 

 icterine warbler shot twenty years ago in his garden at North 

 Jesmond the most important bird, from the point of view of 

 local ornithology, in the beautiful collection left by his father, 

 the late Charles Murray Adamson. From the Rev. J. E. 

 Hull we have received 135 fresh tubes of spiders for incor- 

 poration in the reference collection with which he has provided 

 us. A gift from Lord Armstrong which has attracted a good 

 deal of attention is a clever reproduction of the dodo made by 

 Messrs. Rowland Ward. Dr. C. T. Trechmann has given us 

 a large number of insects, British and exotic, of various 

 groups; some of them will be particularly useful in fitting up 

 the show-cases that are still to be prepared. The largest and 

 in many ways the most remarkable acquisition of the year has 

 come to us by bequest of the late Miss M. R. Dickinson, of 

 Norham, a lady who retained to an advanced age a boundless 

 energy and unusual versatility. The bequest includes a great 

 series of beautifully executed water-colour drawings of wild 

 flowers, in itself a remarkable life-work ;' good collections of 

 flowering plants, mosses, fresh-water algae and seaweeds, 

 some shells and other remains of shore life, a small microscope 



