The Museum as it stands To-day 73 



contains many sets or single volumes, notable for their rarity, value, 

 or beauty. Among the last are the beautiful sets of original ele- 

 phant-folio plates of Audubon's Birds of America and the Quad- 

 rupeds. Hardly less elegant are the complete works of Gould, in- 

 cluding sumptuously bound monographs on various groups of bril- 

 liantly colored birds, such as the hummingbirds and the toucans, 

 illustrated by magnificent colored plates in folio size. There is also 

 a copy of the rarer volume on the Odontophorinas or quails, and 

 a set of the Birds of Australia. The earlier classic works of Wilson 

 and of Catesby, the former on birds, the latter on plants and ani- 

 mals of the Carolinas, are also represented. Several volumes of col- 

 ored figures by Abbot, illustrate the birds and insects of Georgia, 

 and are exceedingly rare if not almost unique. Other older works 

 include beautifully illustrated volumes on shells, such as the series 

 of Reeve's Conchologia Iconica and the Conchyliorum Cabinet of 

 Martini and Chemnitz. More modern works of great beauty and 

 value are the series of volumes of the Biologia Centrali- Ameri- 

 cana, the Flora of Bi-azil, Sargent's Sylva, and others too numer- 

 ous to name in a brief paragraph. Then there are many sets of the 

 transactions of learned societies, some of whose publications extend 

 back for a century or more. Special efforts have been made to com- 

 plete the more valuable of these, so that some at least are more 

 nearly perfect than are to be found elsewhere in the vicinity. Others 

 are less ancient but rare in this neighborhood, such as the fine se- 

 ries of illustrated volumes of the Bombay Society of Natural His- 

 tory. Numerous old works of a bygone day are represented, whose 

 value lies in their quaintness or other historic importance as source 

 books, or records of the beginnings of a more exact knowledge of 

 Natural History. Among these are the great volumes of Gesner's 

 Natural History, written in Latin and Greek, with quotations from 



