32 STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL chap. 



of the kingfishers and fruit-pigeons — an assemblage of 

 peculiar and brilliant developments of bird life hardly to 

 be equalled except in South America. The recently 

 extinct forms — the colossal kangaroos and wombats of 

 Australia, and the huge dinornis of New Zealand — were 

 equally remarkable. 



The six rooms now briefly described complete the ex- 

 position of the geographical distribution of land animals, 

 and the visitor who makes himself thoroughly acquainted 

 with their contents by repeated inspection and comparison, 

 will obtain a conception of the general aspects of animal 

 life in each of the great divisions of the globe w^hich 

 hardly any amount of reading or of visits to ordinary 

 museums would give him. It is a remarkable thing that 

 so interesting and instructive a mode of arranging a 

 museum, and one so eminently calculated to impress and 

 educate the general public, has never been adopted in any 

 of the great collections of Europe, in all of which ample 

 materials exist for the purpose. It is a striking proof of 

 the want of any clear perception of the true uses and 

 functions of museums that pervade the governing bodies 

 of such institutions, and also perhaps, of the deadening 

 influence of routine and red-tapeism in rendering any such 

 radical change as this almost impossible. But we have 

 yet to see some further applications of the same principle 

 at the Harvard Museum. 



Two rooms not yet opened to the public are being pre- 

 pared to illustrate the fauna of the Atlantic and Pacific 

 Oceans respectively. Here will be exhibited specimens of 

 the peculiar forms of whales and porpoises, seals, walruses, 

 and sea-lions, the oceanic birds, the fishes and mollusca 

 characteristic of each ocean, while separate cases will 

 illustrate the land fauna of the more remarkable of its 

 oceanic islands. On my suggesting to Professor Agassiz 

 that the northern and southern portions of these faunas 

 were usually distinct, he thought that these might be 

 perhaps exhibited at opposite ends of each room. 

 r: By the kindness of Prof Agassiz and of Mr. Samuel 

 Henshaw, his representative at the museum, I have been 

 able to give a view of a corner of the European room, showing 

 the goats, deers, bears, rabbits, and other characteristic 



