REPORT ON MUSEUM WORK 2«Q 



and means would allow of it we should be very glad to 

 prepare such cases for the council schools of Newcastle ; but 

 with our present resources anything of the kind is out of the 

 question. 



Some of the donations received during the year call for 

 special mention. Mrs. Wingate has handed over to the 

 museum a large proportion of the natural history collections 

 left by the late Rev. W. J. Wingate. They included a large 

 number of diptera, from which we have selected all that were 

 of value as additions to the fine collection presented by Mr. 

 Wingate some years ago, and incorporated them in it. 

 Fishes which we specially wanted for casting have been 

 obtained for us by Mr. Abel Chapman, Mr. Nevvbey S. 

 Green, Mr. Samuel Graham and the late Mrs. James 

 Richardson. Some particularly interesting chicks and nest- 

 lings of British birds have been presented by Mr. Isaac 

 Clark, who had stuffed them excellently himself. Mr. A. M. 

 Oliver has given us some rare British land shells, and Mr. R. 

 Standen, of the Manchester Museum, a series of Whitstable 

 oysters, showing the stages of growth from the young or 

 " spat " to the marketable size and beyond. From Mr. 

 George A. Atkinson, who is at present in Japan, we have 

 received an interesting set of Japanese butterflies and moths 

 and a few bird skins ; from Dr. W. M. Tattersall an example 

 of one of the rare flexible-shelled sea urchins dredged off the 

 west coast of Ireland. The chief acquisition in the geological 

 department is a large set of fossils collected in various parts 

 of England and Ireland by Major C. F. Bishop and presented 

 by him to the museum. They include some good sections of 

 Devonian corals, some fine specimens of rare fossils from the 

 Irish Carboniferous Limestone, and some particularly good 

 fossils from the Chalk. An interesting addition to the 

 ethnology department is a collection of objects representing 

 Chinese arts and customs, presented by Miss E. Livens. The 

 camera given us by Mr. Beck and other members of the 

 Council is a most welcome acquisition and has already 

 proved very useful. 



