204 NATURAL SCIENCE. March, 



1. Faunal collections limited to the British isles. 



2. Small, well-chosen, typical collections to illustrate the 



forms of animal- and plant-life, together with typical 

 collections of minerals and of fossils, stratigraphically 

 arranged. 



A brief account of the present contents of the Eton College 

 Museum may now be given, to show how far it comes up to the ideal, 

 and in what ways it is still deficient. 



The north end of the Museum is occupied by three large 

 mahogany table cases, containing a small but useful collection of 

 Invertebrates. The dried specimens are arranged in the table-cases, 

 the bottles containing preparations of the softer-bodied animals are 

 placed on shelves between the two glass lids of the cases. Most of 

 the contents of this collection have been purchased from time to time 

 from the Naples or the Plymouth Zoological Stations. 



The collection destined to illustrate the Vertebrate series is much 

 less advanced ; as yet it consists only of a few skeletons and prepara- 

 tions placed in a wall case. 



With regard to the Faunal collections, the Mammals are not as 

 yet very far advanced, but the Museum possesses a very good collec- 

 tion of stuffed birds, each species being mounted in a separate glass- 

 fronted case. This collection is interesting historically, having been 

 formed by Dr. Thackeray, the late Provost of King's College, Cam- 

 bridge, who was a friend and correspondent of Yarrell. It is said to 

 have been used by Yarrell while writing his celebrated " History of 

 the British Birds " ; indeed many of the well-known figures in that 

 work seem to have been drawn from the birds now in the 

 Museum.2 



Provost Thackeray left his collection to the School, and it 

 formed for a long time the nucleus of the Museum in the Rotunda 

 above mentioned. Although it was made so many years ago, the 

 specimens still remain in a very fair state of preservation, except for 

 the fading of some of them. It is arranged along the walls on botli 

 sides of the room. 



It has been lately proposed to add to the mounted series a 

 collection of British birds " in skin," which will be much more useful 

 for close examination and handling, and a beginning has already been 

 made in this undertaking. 



The collection of birds' eggs is arranged in glass-topped boxes 

 and placed in drawers of a special cabinet presented by Mr. A. C. 

 Benson, one of the Masters ; the collection has increased a good deal 

 during the last two years, but is still by no means perfect. 



A very good series of British butterflies and moths, arranged in 

 six cabinets, was presented many years ago to the school in memory 



^ See, for example, the Alpine Accentor, shot in the garden of King's College, 

 Cambridge, on November, 1822, Yarrell's " History of British Birds," ed. 4, vol i., 

 p. 296. 



