54 ZOOLOGICAL RESEARCHES 



To obtain these no time must be lost; many species 

 of animals are daily diminishing in number, especi- 

 ally by the influence of man, and will sooner or later 

 become entirely extinct , whereas others are reduced to a 

 small community which often emigrates to the untrodden 

 wilds of the interior, from whence it is very difficult to 

 obtain them. Not only are they rarely captured but their 

 transport to the nearest harbour often is very troublesome 

 and expensive, nay, very often impracticable. And so it 

 becomes a duty to naturalists to try and secure specimens 

 of those types that are for ever disappearing from the surface 

 of the earth. Then at least they will have the satisfaction to be 

 able to show and to stjidy be it only the dead relics of a crea- 

 tion , the harmony of which has already been disturbed in 

 manifold ways by the thoughtless tyranny of man himself. 

 It has even now become difficult to recognize the original 

 plan of creation in its full extent. ^) 



Being myself occupied since many years with the foun- 

 dation and gradual development of an establishment ans- 

 wering to the above definition, at the same time the cen- 

 tral Museum for the kingdom of the Netherlands , I start- 

 ed from the principle that such an institution would be 

 greatly benefited and gradually claim superiority over the 

 greater number of existing zoological Musea, if its col- 

 lections could be enriched by the results of very thorough 

 researches made in certain more or less restricted localities 

 by men of sufficient scientific training and during a period 

 which should be long enough for a throurough explora- 

 tion and for the collecting of numerous specimens of every 

 species. 



The liberal way in which the Government of the Ne- 



1) It is hardly necessary to reminil that these observations have a special 

 bearing upon the mammals and birds, which in consequence of their higher 

 organisation are placed at the head of creation and must occupy the first rank 

 in Musea. Their capture requires the greatest expense, their preservation and 

 itudy perfect knowledge. 



iXotes from the Leyden IVIuseuni, "Vol. HI. 



