10 



TME MUSEUM. 



During the past year the Collection exhibited has been 

 greatly increased, not only by donations and purchases, but 

 in bringing into view, and rendering useful, the hitherto 

 unexamined stores, more particularly the Reptiles and 

 Fishes, and the Skeletons of Mammalia. It may be re- 

 marked that a great number of Reptiles and Fishes have, 

 from an early period, been kept in store-jars, owing to the 

 want of room for their exhibition and arrangement in sepa- 

 rate glass bottles ; and the annual expense of preserving 

 these specimens, which have constantly required fresh spirit, 

 has been considerable. A great portion of them have, du- 

 ring the last year, been properly put up in bottles ; and, 

 aithougli this mode of preserving them has been the cause 

 of more than usual outlay, it has the advantage of render- 

 ing the subjects convenient for reference and study, and 

 moreover they will not require in future the constant ex- 

 pense of spirit which has hitherto been necessary. 



The number of specimens of Reptiles which have thus 

 been added to the Museum during the past year is 470; a 

 number more than doubling those hitherto contained in the 

 Museum. The specimens are now all of them arranged 

 and catalogued, and the greater part of them are named. 



The number of Fishes exhibited for the first time during 

 the past year is 277, and the total number is 877 ; all of 

 which are catalogued and arranged, and are undergoing 

 final examination for the purpose of naming. 



The number of Skeletons exhibited in the Museum is 75, 

 the "-reater part of which have been selected from the stores, 

 eitiier on account of their rarity, or to exhibit the principal 

 modifications observable in the osteological structure of the 

 classes Mammalia and Aves. 



The total number of Birds now exhibited in the Museum 

 is 5117, of which upwards of 2000 have names attached to 

 them: the increase since the last Anniversary is 317. 



In the collection of Mammalia there has been a greater 

 increase probably than in any year since the time in which 



