472 THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



times seen in this neighbourhood, in the spring and in the autumn. 

 The following description is from a person who has seen it twice, in the 

 spring of 1831, and on the 8th of September last, when he was enabled 

 to ge.t a very close view of it. In its make, its plumage, and in its 

 manners it closely resembles the common brown creeper (Certhia 

 familiar is), and its bill, also, is similarly curved ; but it differs in 

 being about double the size of that bird, and in having a forked tail ; 

 possibly, however, in the individual from which this description was 

 taken, the middle feathers of the tail may have been wanting. The 

 attention of my informant was first attracted by the novelty of its 

 notes, which he describes to be much varied, and totally unlike those 

 of the common creeper, or of any other small bird with which he is 

 acquainted. 



Tooting, October 16th, 1833 



THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



BY B. G. BALLARD, ESQ. 



To the general visiters of the British Museum, the Synopsis pub- 

 lished by that institution, though admirable in its scientific arrange- 

 ments, and absolutely necessary to the diligent inquirer, by the nature 

 of its construction, as a catalogue, fails to convey a variety of particu- 

 lars relative to its contents, which would, if embodied in separate essays, 

 be highly useful to the student in natural history. In my own visits 

 to the Museum I have constantly felt the want of some condensed 

 information of the several specimens of zoology, many of which are 

 extremely curious, and naturally excite inquiry and stimulate investi- 

 gation. As a reader in the library I had the opportunity of gratifying 

 these desires, and accordingly pursued the study with considerable 

 ardour, and made rather extensive collections from the works of various 

 authors on the several species in the zoological department ; but the 

 immense extent of the collection at length baffled my patience, and I 

 was compelled to abandon my labours. The effect, however, served to 

 convince me of the utility of the inquiry ; and I shall venture on the 

 experiment of submitting some of my notices of the most curious 

 specimens to the pages of the Field Naturalist's Magazine, since the 

 works which describe them are not in the possession of every student ; 

 and though to the professor the descriptions may be familiar, the tyro 



