REPORT ON MUSEUM WORK 7 



Kensington. A cabinet has been purchased for the large 

 combined local collection of beetles, and in preparation for 

 installing it Miss Welford is re-carding the beetles in the late 

 T. J. Bold's collection. We have made a set of corked trays 

 fitting the desk cases, and these will be used for the exhibited 

 collections of insects : they will bring up the insects so as to 

 lie parallel with the glass and close under it. 



The largest single specimen added to the collections during 

 the year is the skeleton of a Avhite whale or beluga. The 

 animal was captured seven years ago at the mouth of the 

 Tyne, and its occurrence there constituted a southerly record 

 for the species in the North Sea. The skeleton has been 

 mounted very successfully by Mr. Fletcher. Since it was 

 finished we have made a hollow half-model of the whale itself 

 (on the same principle as is adopted in the well-known whale 

 room at South Kensington) and fixed it up round one side of 

 the skeleton. From that side what is seen is a life-sized 

 model of the entire animal ; from the other, the skeleton 

 enclosed by the animal's outline. The construction of the 

 hollow model was altogether an experiment as far as we were 

 concerned, and we are gratified to have succeeded with it. 

 Another cetacean, again caught at the mouth of the Tyne, 

 has also been occupying a good deal of our time lately. This 

 is a white-beaked dolphin ( Lagenorhynchus albirostris) which 

 we bought in a fresh condition from a fishmonger. We 

 secured a good cast of it, from which a paper model is now 

 being made ; we then dissected it, keeping some of the more 

 interesting organs, and Mr. Fletcher is making a preparation 

 of the skeleton. 



We have mounted eight birds during the year, all of them 

 good additions to the collection. Some foreign game birds 

 have been removed from old cases in the storeroom, and the 

 best of them identified and arranged in cases on the bird- 

 room gallery. In the fossil room the. chief addition that has 

 been worked in is a set of American fossils acquired by 

 exchange with the New York Museum of Natural History. 



