Recently published Ornithological Works. 557 



No one interested in Zoological Museums^ whether as a 

 Curator or a Student, should fail to study the excellent 

 address delivered by the President of the Museums Associa- 

 tion to the members assembled at their general meeting in 

 London last year^ and lately issued in the " Report " of their 

 Proceedings, Sir William Flower gives ns a critical account 

 of some of the most important of the existing Museums, 

 and, what is still more valuable, a definite scheme and plan 

 of his own, showing how a modern Museum should be con- 

 structed. One of his pieces of advice to Curators is so 

 important and so tersely put that we must beg leave to 

 extract it : — 



'' The number of the specimens must be strictly limited, 

 according to the nature of the subject to be illustrated and 

 the space available. None must be placed either too high or 

 too low for ready examination. There must be no crowding 

 of specimens one behind the other, every one being perfectly 

 and distinctly seen, and with a clear space around it. If an 

 object is worth putting into a gallery at all, it is worth such 

 a position as will enable it to be seen. Every specimen 

 exhibited should be good of its kind, and all available skill and 

 care should be spent upon its preservation, and in rendering 

 it capable of teaching the lesson it is intended to convey. 

 Every specimen should have its definite purpose, and no 

 absolute duplicate should on any account be admitted. 

 Above all, the purpose for which each specimen is exhibited, 

 and the main lesson to be derived from it, must be distinctly 

 indicated by the labels affixed, both as headings of the various 

 divisions of the series and to the individual specimens." 



80. Hartert on the Mode of Flight of the Accipitres. 



[Wie halt der fliegende Eaubvogel seine Beiue ? Vou Ernst Hartevt. 

 Oruith. Monatsb. No. I., January 1894.] 



Mr. Hartert controverts the ordinary and certainly widely 

 accepted notion that Birds of Prey, when in flight, carry 

 their legs drawn up against the breast. He observed first 

 that the Kites so common in the harbour of Calcutta, Milvus 

 govinda and Haliastur indus, always carried their legs stretched 



SER VI. — VOL. VI. 2 Q 



