viii BRITISH BIRDS' NESTS. 



The influence of faithful illustration in works on 

 natural history soon began to make itself felt in 

 museums, and a higher aim in the efforts of taxi- 

 dermists became apparent ; but the man who most 

 fully realised this necessity, in England at least, 

 was John Hancock, and, after him, the late E. T. 

 Booth, of Brighton, whose museum in the Dyke 

 Road is one of the attractions of that flourishing 

 watering-place. I cannot vouch for the truth of 

 the statement, but I have more than once heard 

 it said that the formation of this collection cost 

 the late owner sixty thousand pounds from first to 

 last. Travelling all over the United Kingdom, and 

 collecting diligently, Mr. Booth managed to get 

 together a very complete collection of British birds, 

 which, however, he did not mount in the usual 

 way of museums, on rows of stands, but placed his 

 treasures in cases, in which the birds were repre- 

 sented with their natural surroundings. Thus we 

 see the Waders feeding on the shore, with a view 

 of the sea beyond ; and Stone-Chats sit on their 

 native gorse, instead of perching on a wooden stand, 

 with a very evident stiffness due to the taxidermist's 

 wire. The pictures of bird-life in the Dyke Eoad 

 Museum are faithfully reproduced by Mr. Neale in 

 the illustrations to the " Rough Notes," which were 

 published by Mr. Booth. 



The crowds of people, increasing year by year, 

 who visit the Natural History branch of the British 

 Museum at South Kensington, testify to the popu- 

 larity of the bird-groups in the national collection. 

 These faithfully represent the natural history of the 

 species, for the actual birds are there, with thek 

 nest and eggs or young ones, exactly as they were 

 on the day of their capture ; every leaf, every flower, 

 being exactly reproduced. It must, however, not 



