PROCEEDINGS—PERTHSHIRE SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCE, lxvii 
the upright Wall Case No. 9 of the Botanical department—certainly 
not to the advantage of either, nor to the appearance of the Museum. 
With regard to the birds themselves, these have been all carefully 
gone over, as has been the annual custom, and the cases dusted 
inside, as, I am sorry to say, some of them are not impervious to 
that very insidious ingredient. This refers more especially to Wall 
Case No. 6, at both ends, and it should, if possible, be rectified. 
Several valuable ornithological additions have been made since my 
last report; but as these have been recently brought under the notice 
of the Society in various papers that have been read on the subject, 
I will not go further than to say that, in some of the compartments 
of the bird-cases, the specimens are becoming so much crowded as 
to preclude any further increase to their numbers, greatly to the pre¬ 
judice of the collection at large. The same may be said of nearly 
all the other sections of this department—the Mammals, as also the 
Fishes. It is therefore to be hoped that an effort may be made soon 
to try and obviate the present difficulty, and to prevent the work, so 
successfully commenced, coming altogether to a standstill, after the 
encomiums passed on our good beginning by such authorities as 
Prof. Flower, of the British Museum, Dr. Tristram, of ornithological 
fame, and many other eminent naturalists, who have visited the 
Museum, and so thoroughly approved of our local system. It would 
indeed be sad were the original plan not to be carried out in its 
entirety, and the Museum not eventually become, as it ought to be, 
worthy of the important district which it represents. But then, to 
make it so, we not only want space, but also the co-operation of all, 
far and near, in making liberal contributions, representative of the 
several localities in which they live. This might be done in many 
ways—one especially. For instance, in the Zoological section, much 
help might be given by the donation, or even the loan, of many 
a specimen, now, perhaps, occupying some dark passage or back stair 
“out of sight, out of mind.” There are still, no doubt, extant in the 
county many such specimens, not of much value to the owner, but 
infinitely so to a local museum such as ours—as, for example, the 
Wild Cat, the Marten Cat, Polecat, Fishing Eagle, Osprey, Blue 
Hawk, or Hen Harrier (male), and many others, mostly now extinct 
or nearly so, and otherwise unprocurable. The specimens may be 
bad, but, by the careful manipulation of an experienced taxidermist, 
might be so restored as to be of the greatest service to the Society in 
enabling them to carry out the original idea of the representation of a 
complete Fauna of the district, both of the present and the past. 
REPORT OF LIBRARIAN. 
The Library continues to be only fairly well taken advantage of 
by the Society. The number of readers during the past session has 
been 40, out of a membership of 300. 
The number of volumes now in the Library amounts to 600, of 
which 176 belong to the Reference Library. 
REPORT OF EDITOR. 
The Third Part (Vol. I., new series) of the Transactions and 
