COUNCIL FOR 1844. 19 



logical collection in the Museum. Attractive as the foreign birds 

 are, regarded only as objects of popular interest, it is hardly- 

 necessary to remark how greatly the value of the collection 

 will be increased, when every specimen shall have been criti- 

 cally examined, and its species determined, by so competent an 

 authority as Mr. Gould. In connection with this branch of 

 Natural History, Mr. Meynell has presented the Museum with 

 his entire collection of Eggs of British Birds, amounting to 

 more than 400 specimens, and embracing upwards of 200 spe- 

 cies. Lieut. Rhodes has presented the Museum with a collec- 

 tion of West Indian Fishes, valuable for the unusual perfection 

 in which their characters have been preserved, as well as for 

 their intrinsic interest ; the collection containing many of the 

 more remarkable tropical genera, as Platax, Balistes, Mono- 

 canthus, &c. 



The sum of i?.50 has been laid out in the purchase of 

 Shells, to improve the general conchological collection, which 

 now contains examples of nearly all the well-marked generic 

 forms, and is sufficiently complete to be consulted with ad- 

 vantage. Mr. Joseph Clarke has likewise presented the 

 Museum with a fine series of North-American Uniones. 



The British marine shells have been remounted on tablets 

 and arranged in the raised case above that containing the 

 foreign collection. Although this series includes most of the 

 larger British species, yet, as a whole, it is but a very imper- 

 fect illustration of our native Testaceous Fauna, embracing 

 not more than 250 out of above 600 species known to inhabit 

 the British Seas. It is probable, however, that many present 

 desiderata will be obtained, when railway communication shall 

 have rendered the Coast more easily accessible. 



