THE ZooLocist—APRIL, 1875. 4407 
and there is evidently an interest taken in the museum. The 
most minute information is given on the labels, in which different 
coloured inks are used: they are very neat, and not monstrous in 
size. This is a pleasant museum to visit. 
York.—The museum at York is the best of any I have had the 
good fortune to see; the arrangements are excellent—the taste is 
exquisite: as a matter. of artistic arrangement alone the ornitho- 
logical department deserves notice. The position of the museum 
is remarkably pretty, standing as it does near the ruins of St. Mary’s 
Abbey, and having well laid-out gardens about it. There are no 
less than three collections of birds in this museum—the general 
collection, the Rudston Collection, and the Strickland Collection. 
The general collection is clean, tidy, and well cared for. There 
are a great number of birds in good preservation, which individually 
wanted more time for a closer examination than I was able to 
give: their labels are small and contain all necessary information: 
they are ranged on shelves in a gallery, to which there is a stair- 
case. This gallery runs round one of the rooms, so that there is 
great economy of space, while at the same time the birds have an 
excellent light from the skylight. 
The Rudston Collection.—Here is art indeed. This collection 
is in aroom by itself: the light is from a skylight, which has a 
glass top and glass sides. The mistake here is that a blind has 
been drawn across the top glass, so that the light after all is from 
the sides. It is a pity, in so well arranged a collection, that this 
should have occurred, as it prevents one from thoroughly enjoying 
it; for one is obliged to look through one’s hands, as if looking 
out of window on a dark night; but here the birds are arranged 
with so much taste that it well repays the trouble of thus looking 
at them. There is a large case against each side of the room, in 
which the birds are placed. There is one case of quadrupeds. The 
backs of all the cases are brown—not white: this gives an air of 
cosy comfort to the room, fur it does not look so like a pauper 
lunatic asylum as so many of the bare whitewashed museum-cases 
do. What the material used is I cannot say, but I very much 
suspect it to be crinkled brown paper, sanded; the bottom of the 
cases is of the same material and colour. The birds are not on 
shelves, but those which require raising are on rocks, so that all 
of them can be seen at the same time: there is not a straight line 
of birds. The labels are fastened on to each bird, and are as 
