42 Department of Zoology. 



1879-1881. edition of the Catalogue ; it proved to be the beginning of 

 long, most meritorious and beneficial service. 



ARRANGEMENT OP THE COLLECTION. 

 (1879-81.) 



In 1880 the rooms hitherto occupied by the Mineralogical 

 and Geological Departments had been vacated, and the Trustees, 

 anxious to begin contemplated alterations for a new Gallery of 

 Sculptures, ordered the immediate removal of the zoological 

 studies and study collections from the N.W. part of the building 

 into the vacated galleries. The staff" soon settled down in this 

 temporary home, but the regular work of the Department was 

 interrupted while the disturbance lasted. Nevertheless the work 

 of systematic arrangement and cataloguing proceeded, and was 

 directed to every part of the collection for which assistance was 

 available. In the arrangement of the Mammals the Keeper now 

 obtained help from Mr. Thomas, an Assistant appointed in 1878, 

 who prepared a MS. list of Insectivora ; on the collection of 

 Birds and Batrachia three ornithologists and one herpetologist 

 had been at work ; accessions to the collection of Lizards were 

 described by the late Mr. O'Shaughnessy ; the Crustacean 

 family Idoteidse was brought into complete order, with the 

 assistance of the types in the Paris Museum ; specimens of the 

 Challenger Collections (Echinoderms and Corals) which had 

 been received were compared by Messrs. Bell and Ridley with 

 the published Reports and incorporated : the Nematoid Worms 

 were catalogued in MS. by the late Dr. L. Orley, of Buda-Pesth, 

 who devoted several months of a visit to London to this work. 

 Finally the whole collection of microscopic preparations was 

 classified and labelled ; it numbered 3500 slides, 'exclusive of 

 more than 2200 Sponge slides, of which nearly the whole was 

 derived from the Bowerbank Collection. This series was placed 

 in suitable mahogany boxes, 111 in number. 



In the Entomological branch only certain portions could be 

 attended to. Many of the recent accessions were examined and 

 reported upon by the entomologists, who in 1879 described 1244 

 new species from Museum specimens. The accessions to the 

 order of Coleoptera consisted chiefly of specimens which had 

 been authoritatively named by specialists, but the mere labour 

 of arranging and incorporating many thousands of specimens, 

 and eliminating duplicates, was more than could possibly be 



