334 Transactions. — Zoology. 



North Island Thrush, and the other museums in tlie colony 

 are entirely without them. This being so, it is surely high 

 time that an effort was made to collect for each of our 

 museums, before it is too late, a complete series of our existing 

 native birds — at any rate, for the Colonial Museum, which is 

 maintained by the Government and is supposed to take the 

 lead. This might be easily accomplished now, but ere long it 

 will be impossible. It is to such a museum as this that the 

 student of the future will naturall)^ look for his working 

 material when the forms of which I have been speaking have 

 passed away for ever from the sphere of living things. It will 

 be a sad reproach to us, livmg as we do in this boasted nine- 

 teenth century, if in this respect we fail in our manifest duty. 

 An excellent collection of the interesting insular forms could 

 be made by sending such a taxidermist as Mr. Yuill (of whose 

 neat work there are some illustrations now on the table) on 

 two or three round cruises of the " Hinemoa." An enthusiast 

 such as he is, with the necessary facilities at his command, 

 would soon accumulate a collection for the colony of very 

 great value. 



And this brings me to the question of the proper display of 

 such collections in our museums, so as to make them sub- 

 servient to the requirements of modern science. 



At the present time we have in the Colonial Museum up- 

 wards of three hundred mounted specimens of indigenous birds, 

 a large proportion of them being highly creditable exhibits 

 of the taxidermists' skill ; but how are they arranged ? Not 

 systematically, according to their natural affinities, because of 

 the want of the necessary room for their proper classification 

 and display. The only grouping that is natural is such as 

 is now to be seen in the admirably-arranged galleries of the 

 Natural History Museum at South Kensington, where, in 

 separate plate-glass show-cases, birds of one species, repre- 

 senting the sexes, the adult, young, and adolescent states, 

 and the various phases of seasonal plumage, are exhibited, 

 together with the natural accessories of wood and rock and 

 vegetation, to illustrate the life-history of the bird. Such a 

 mode of exhibition is not only attractive in the highest degree, 

 but most instructive. Of course, we cannot attempt any- 

 thmg so ambitious here, on account of the great expense ; 

 but there is no reason why the birds should not be ar- 

 ranged systematically for the benefit of the natural-history 

 student. This has been done in the Canterbury and Otago 

 Museums, and I think also in Auckland. It seems little short 

 of a scandal that, owing to the lack of proper departmental 

 aid, scientific classification should be neglected in the leading 

 museum of the colony, which is admittedly under the control 

 of a director of exceptional ability and culture. Then, again, 



