VI 



ADDKESS AT THE OPENING OF THE BOOTH 

 MUSEUM AT BEIGHTON 1 



WE are assembled in a room that contains a collection in many 

 respects unequalled by any other in the world. In the first 

 place, it has been entirely the work of one man in a life of no 

 great length, he had only reached the age of fifty when he 

 died, but who devoted an extraordinary amount of energy 

 and perseverance, and also expended a very considerable amount 

 of money, in making it as perfect as possible of its kind. 

 You must not suppose for a moment that Mr. Booth was the 

 only man who ever made a collection of British birds. Birds 

 have always been favourites, and the birds of our own islands, 

 though far less remarkable for form, size, and brilliancy of 

 plumage than those of other lands, have for many reasons been 

 peculiarly attractive. The national pride which causes us to 

 love our countrymen better than foreigners includes birds as 

 well as other bipeds. It has, therefore, been the aim of many 

 public museums, as well as private lovers of natural history, to 

 make as complete a collection of British birds as possible. 

 But it is one thing to have a collection adapted and con- 

 veniently arranged for reference and study by the learned 

 ornithologist, or consisting of as many specimens as can be 

 crammed into the smallest space they could occupy, without 

 regard to their condition or their order, and quite another 

 thing to have a collection under such circumstances and so 

 arranged as to convey the fullest possible amount of information 

 and instruction, and to excite the greatest possible interest in 

 the minds of those who, like the majority of us, are not in a 



1 3rd November 1890. 



