in the University of Cambridge. 321 



the University, were so efficiently urged that upwards of ^£700 

 became available for the purpose of furnishing the accommoda- 

 tion necessary for duly housing these two fine collections; and 

 then no time was lost in ordering cabinets in which their 

 valuable contents might be properly and safely arranged. 



It was felt to be desirable that these cabinets should be built 

 on the very best plan available ; and it did not require much 

 time to perceive that a principle first suggested by Mr. Osbert 

 Salvin, and adopted by him in his own collection, was that 

 which, according to all experience, was the most suitable. This 

 principle may be briefly described as follows : — Having decided 

 upon a unit of size for the smallest drawer to be used, every 

 other larger drawer should be as to its dimensions a multiple of 

 that unit, so as to admit of the readiest interchange of drawers 

 possible. The advantages of this principle, which several other 

 naturalists (who had seen how admirably the plan worked in its 

 inventor's collection) had followed, are numerous. It makes 

 the most of the space available, and permits without trouble of 

 a deep drawer being substituted in place of two shallow ones, a 

 deeper still instead of three shallow ones or of two shallow 

 drawers and a deep one, and of course the contrary. Further, 

 by having the cabinets to consist of two stacks of drawers 

 standing back to back, a drawer may be made of double length 

 so as to occupy the superficial space of two ordinary ones, and 

 yet not to interfere with the system, while such a drawer, if the 

 unit be judiciously chosen will hold any but the skins of the 

 very largest birds — the Struthiones for example. But as these 

 forms are seldom, if ever, kept in the shape of unmounted skins, 

 the exception is practically immaterial. In the case of the 

 Cambridge Museum the superficial dimensions of the unit- 

 drawer were necessarily determined by the space between the 

 windows of the building. That which has been employed is 

 25| inches by 17^ inches, with a depth of 3 inches; and though 

 it is astonishing how few birdskins there are that, when properly 

 prepared, will not lie easily on such a surface, it is not to be denied 

 that even here a unit of larger superficies would have been 

 found in some respects more advantageous. The abominable 

 practice followed by too many bird-skinners, that of stuffing out 



