74 Transactions. — Zooloyy. 



The general collection of invertebrata extends round three 

 sides of both galleries : from protozoa to brachiopoda in the 

 upper ; mollusca and tunicata in the lower gallery. The New 

 Zealand invertebrates are placed in a single row of desk-cases, 

 extending along the west wall of the lower gallery. The fishes, 

 amphibia, and reptiles occupy the wall-cases in the lower 

 gallery ; a few of the smaller specimens (fossils, &c.) of the 

 same groups are placed in desk-cases, and a considerable 

 number of spirit specimens on a shelf, extending round three 

 sides of the gallery, above the cases containing the mollusca. 

 Lastly, as mentioned above, the birds occupy the wall-cases of 

 the upper gallery, and the mammals those of the ground floor. 

 Some of the larger specimens of the latter group are placed, not 

 in cases, but in railed-off enclosures, in the centre of the ground 

 floor ; and the skeletons of moas and other large struthious birds 

 are, on account of their great size, similarly disposed. In the case 

 of vertebrata, as in that of invertebrata, the New Zealand 

 specimens are kept separate from the general collection. 



It is obvious that what is wanted, if the Museum is to be in 

 any way an educational institution, is some contrivance for 

 showing the relations of the various groups of animals to one 

 another, and the place in the Museum where the representa- 

 tives of each group are to be found. If this is done, the 

 intelligent visitor, who, without time or inclination for exact 

 scientific study, yet wishes to get some notions of natural 

 history, will be guided in his search ; and with the aid of a good 

 popular work, such as Miss Buckley's "Life and Her Children," 

 and " Winners in Life's Eace," or Cassell's " Natural History," 

 be enabled to acquire a fairly clear and accurate, although 

 naturally superficial, knowledge of the form and general 

 structure of animals, and of their relation to one another. 



In the new Natural History Museum at South Kensington, 

 this is done by setting apart the great central hall for an 

 " Index-Collection," in which are exhibited types of the various 

 groups of minerals, plants, and animals. But as the whole of 

 our local museum would go into the hall in question, it is plain 

 that we must be content with something on a very much 

 smaller scale. 



To confine ourselves to the zoological collections, which 

 take up by far the greater part of the Museum, it would seem 

 that what we want is a collection in which each of the main 

 groups of animals is represented by one or more examples, 

 and in which these are arranged in such a way as to bring 

 forcibly before the observer the mutual relations of the groups 

 which they typify. 



Since the theory of Organic Evolution has been recognized 

 as the central doctrine of Biology, all classification of living 

 things has been founded on the idea of genetic relationship. 



