4058 The Zoologist — July, 1874. 



stand on. The light was very good here, — a side light, — so that 

 it was possible to see the birds instead of one's own face, which is 

 all one sees when the light comes from the window opposite, and 

 one can see that at home without looking for it in a museum. Of 

 course the light from the top is better still, but this is not always 

 obtainable, and next to that ranks the side-light. 



At Exeter I was rather unfortunate, for on entering the first 

 room there was a nasty smell, and on looking roimd I found 

 a large box full of birds, thrown in higgledy piggledy : they were 

 in hospital ; moths their disease, benzine their cure. In the next 

 room, however, the birds were in their cases. They were in 

 separate cases, but this is going to be altered, and they will be on 

 stands in large cases against the wall, this being found most con- 

 venient. I was much struck with the size of the tickets: one 

 goldfinch, which had a little case with a little pane of glass, had a 

 ticket at least one-third the size of its glass ; indeed all the lop 

 row of birds were quite covered by their names ; but this will all be 

 altered now. Some specimens of owls and falcons here are splen- 

 didly stuffed : the life seems arrested in them, not taken from them. 

 It is hard to believe that they will stay there, and not fly away when 

 one is not looking. It is an art, stuffing like this ; too often the 

 very shape of the bird is destroyed, as it stands uncomfortably 

 looking at nothing; but here the very positions are natural. One 

 bird seems to see an enemy approaching, for it has raised its head 

 from tearing in pieces its poor luckless prey, and is giving a hasty 

 glance round to see if it has time to get another bile before it is 

 obliged to fly away. I must not omit to mention " Night and 

 Morning," two owls, one with its large eyes wide open, looking the 

 very picture of wisdom, the other winking and blinking, looking 

 the picture of misery. 



At Taunton the re-arrangement has been effected with all the 

 recent improvements. Here one sees how things ought to be 

 done. The foreign birds are in a case by themselves. The birds 

 are on stands in cases against the wall. The locally shot are well 

 distinguished from the general British birds by the different colour 

 of the tickets, on which their names are beautifully printed, or 

 rather written, for it was all done by hand. This distinction is a 

 great advantage, for one can tell in a moment, by the colour of the 

 ticket, whether a bird is locally shot or not. It was quite a pleasure 

 to look at the clean, well-arranged birds in their new case, after 



