CHAPTER XI 



THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM continued 



PROBABLY Flower found a certain degree of relaxa- 

 tion in planning and sometimes in executing the 

 work in the Central Hall. His sense of beauty 

 and his correct taste lent to the exposition of the 

 individual objects as well as to the series both 

 character and refinement. Occasionally he would 

 reserve some particularly choice portion for his 

 own hand. The writer once visited him on a 

 morning in which he had found leisure to indulge 

 in this form of pleasure. He thought that the 

 series from the plumage of the peacock illustrating 

 Darwin's chapter on the development and gradation 

 of ornament needed renewal, and was undertaking 

 the work himself, with the accurate knowledge of 

 the markings and position of every feather on the 

 peacock's back and train which a fly-tyer has of the 

 place of the few special feathers in a bird's skin 

 which he may need for his flies. He had taken a 

 fine skin of a wild jungle peacock in order to have 

 the very best plumage, and with his steel tweezers 

 had taken out each pair of feathers, as suited the 



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