5. J Nofcs and N'ews. 



T25 



mounting." Already thousands of specimens in the old collection have 

 been unmounted and variously disposed of since the abandonment of '-the 

 time-honored tradition in the mode of mounting animals." As he well 

 says, "every bird exposed in a glass case is doomed to destruction sooner 

 or later, its fate being merely a question of time, as exposure to the light 

 is certain to bleach the plumage and deteriorate the appearance of the 

 specimen; .... therefore the main zoological collections ;ire preserved in 

 cabinets and hidden from the light, and there is no reason why thcv 

 should not be available for the purposes of study for many hundred years." 



Mr. Sharpe describes in detail the series of the groups of British birds 

 with their nests; the 'Index' collection, illustrating the osteology of birds, 

 the structure and growth of feathers, the formation of the beak and feet in 

 the principal forms of birds, etc., and the groups illustrating the hybridiza- 

 tion of species in a wild state, and the variation of species under domes- 

 tication. 



During the last fifteen years, or since Mr. Sharpe was placed in charge, 

 the bird department of the British Museum has advanced from a third-rate 

 position to the first; the study collection has increased from 40,000 spec- 

 imens to 200,000, and with the additions already promised and soon to be 

 incorporated, will "reach theastounding number of 250,000." This, too, 

 with very little encouragement from the Government towards the increase 

 of the collection, its course in this respect contrasting, Mr. Sharpe claims, 

 very unfavorably with that of other nations. This great increase is due 

 to "the private collections, which formerly eclipsed the national one in 

 value," having been given to the Museum. Among these are the Hume 

 collection of nearly 85,000 Indian birds and eggs, and the American series 

 of Messrs. Salvin and Godman, and Dr. Sclater, "which doubled at one 

 stroke the number of specimens in the Museum." Besides these the Wal- 

 lace and Gould collections have been added, and Mr. Seebohm's splendid 

 collection of PaUearctic birds and eggs has been promised, while Captain 

 Wardlaw Ramsay has announced his intention of presenting the immense 

 series of Asiatic birds collected by the late Marquis of Tweeddale, number- 

 iug 40,000 specimens. Mr. Sharpe closes with an enthusiastic appeal to 

 Englishmen everywhere to render still more perfect the already unrivalled 

 collection under his charge. 



Mr. Henry Seebohm has issued a prospectus of a w^ork on 'The Geo- 

 graphical Distribution of the Charadriida; (Plovers, Sandpipers, and 

 Snipes, etc.).' In referring to this important announcement 'Nature' adds 

 the following pertinent comment: "The unrivalled collection of Wading 

 Birds in Mr. Seebohm's possession supplies the material for this work, 

 and the volume will undoubtedly be one of great interest to ornithologists. 

 Mr. Seebohm's ideas on nomenclature, the influence of the Glacial epoch 

 on the migration of birds, and kindred subjects, are always original, and 

 this new work of his will open, according to the prospectus, with an 

 introduction setting forth his latest ojiinions. There is also to be given 



