178 Animal Life and Intelligence. 



And much is being done there to aid the imagination and 

 to faciUtate study for those who are not professed students. 

 Many of the birds are now to be seen set in their natural 

 surroundings, with their life-history illustrated. Our 

 frontispiece is taken from one of these cases. And this 

 admirable system will, no doubt, so far as space permits, 

 be extended; and, perhaps, dramatic incidents may be 

 introduced, like those (notably in the life of heron and 

 hawk) which form so marked a feature in the little museum 

 at Exeter. Anything which leads us to understand the life 

 of animals, and to go forth and study it for ourselves, has 

 an educational value. 



In our National Museum, again, much is being wisely 

 done to illustrate the diversity and variety of structure 

 and the principles that underlie them. Observe, as you 

 enter the central hall, the case containing stuffed specimens 

 of ruffs {Machetes pug?iax). Among the young autumn 

 birds there is not much difference between males and 

 females, the male being distinguished chiefly by its some- 

 what larger size. Nor do the old birds, male and female, 

 differ much during the winter months. But in pairing- 

 time. May and June, the females are somewhat richer in 

 colour ; while the males not only don the ruff to which the 

 bird owes its popular name, but develop striking colour- 

 tints. Among different individuals it will be seen that the 

 colour- variation is tolerably wide ; but the same individual 

 keeps strictly, we are told, in successive seasons, to the 

 same summer dress. Note, next, in a bay to the right, 

 the great variety of form, ornamentation, and colouring 

 among the molluscan shells there exhibited. Observe that 

 the rich colours are often hidden during life by the dull 

 epidermis. Half an hour's attentive study of these varied 

 molluscan forms will give a better idea of the beauty and 

 diversity of these life-products than pages of mere de- 

 scription. 



Pass on, too, to note, in a further bay to the right, the 

 extraordinary modifications of the antenna, or feeler, in 

 insects. There is the long, whip-like form in the locust ; 



