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IV. MUSEUM. 



Amongst the Donations to the Museum the Council 

 have to record a very interesting gift, which has been 

 presented by Mr. Strutt, one of Her Majesty's Stipendiary 

 Magistrates in Berbice. It consists of a series of nearly 

 40 species of Reptiles collected in that Colony, and is in- 

 tended by Mr. Strutt as the commencement of a complete 

 Collection in illustration of the Herpetology of that part of 

 South America. It is scarcely necessary to point out hovir 

 materially the progress of science would be aided by the 

 cooperation of the Corresponding Members of the Society, 

 in working in a similar manner in their respective localities. 



The limited space included in the Society's Building, 

 and the obvious diminution of the necessity for maintaining 

 the old arrangement, as a general Collection of Species, 

 which results from the great development of the Galleries 

 of the British Museum, has determined the Council to 

 adopt a new method of arrangement; and the Society's 

 Museum will therefore, it is hoped, when re-opened to Vi- 

 sitors, present a far more useful aspect than it has hitherto 

 Avorn, by being devoted to the illustration of Genei'a only, 

 for which the extremely varied nature of its contents, and 

 the possession of many of the rarest forms, render it pecu- 

 liarly available. 



The extent of the present Building, which is entirely 

 inadequate to a Collection of Species, even of Mammalia 

 and Birds, will be amply sufficient for the display of the 

 principal generic types of the whole of the Vertebrata, and 

 the dispersion of the Duplicates to the National and Pro- 

 vincial Museums will prove, it is believed, of far greater 

 advantage to public instruction, than could possibly result 

 from their being retained by the Society. 



The Collection of Humming Birds, first exhibited by 

 Mr. Gould in 1851, and subsequently placed by him at 

 the disposal of the Society during the year 1852, were re- 

 turned to him, as agreed on, at the close of that year. The 

 inquiries which are still made for them by the Visitors sig- 

 nificantly indicate the extended interest which they had 

 created among all classes. 



