790 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



printed the names of the best-known representatives of the verte- 

 brate kingdom that distinguish them. Such a series of maps or 

 charts would be highly instructive to the visitor, useful at times 

 in the lecture-room, and always a convenience to others. 



Few departments will be more important than the photo- 

 graphic gallery, and it should be under the charge of a thor- 

 oughly competent photographer, who should also combine in his 

 knowledge a familiarity with the habits of animals, and what is 

 required of him through his art. He can be kept constantly at 

 work photographing the rarer animals. Efforts should be con- 

 stantly made to catch them in the act of any of their peculiar 

 habits ; pictures should be made of their young at all stages, the 

 appearance of the dams at the various periods of gestation, the 

 nesting of the various species of birds, and so on indefinitely. 

 Further, he should be enabled to take photographs of special dis- 

 sections of the prosector, and of casts and skeletons, and similar 

 work. A full series of these photographs should be bound and 

 kept on file in the collections of the establishment, as they will be 

 of the very highest importance to the scientific taxidermist, artist, 

 engraver, zoologist, and others. 



From one cause or another, a certain proportion of the animals 

 die every year ; and in the year 1887, in the London Gardens, for 

 example, there were added twenty-five hundred and twenty-five 

 animals of the three classes of vertebrates— quadrupeds, birds, and 

 reptiles ; and during the same year nine hundred and twenty-five 

 died. Now, these dead animals are in the majority of cases of 

 inestimable value, and no such material should • ever be allowed 

 to go to waste. It should come immediately under the charge of 

 the prosector, so he may promptly direct what use is to be made 

 of it. As a rule, it is not desirable for the garden to accumulate 

 an anatomical collection, though it is highly useful for the pro- 

 sector to have on hand preparations of certain forms ; but, in the 

 main, large skeletons or bodies of animals should be turned over 

 to the city museums. In the case of duplicates, or where animals 

 have died and their anatomical structure has been previously 

 described, they may sometimes be sold or exchanged for living 

 animals, or otherwise disposed of. Often small species can be at 

 once consigned to alcohol, for the future use of the prosectorial 

 department. Rare forms that are but slightly known morpho- 

 logically should be thoroughly described and figured, either by 

 the prosector or by special workers to whom such material may 

 be sent for the purpose. These descriptions and figures should 

 constitute the main feature of the published reports of the gar- 

 den, and they should be got out in a style as handsome as printer 

 and engraver can make them, and bound in a manner compatible 

 with their importance and value. They will not make up, how- 



