24 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Keptiles which never leave the ground in their wild state 

 will glide about the bough like whip-snakes in a cage. If the 

 dimensions of the den permit, two or three such gymnasia may 

 be erected. Eockwork and artificial grottoes at the back are not 

 to be commended, since the snakes are always hiding if the 

 interstices are large enough, and trying to if they are not — 

 witness the elaborately got-up serpent-cases in the lion-house at 

 Antwerp, where, moreover, a most ridiculous effect is produced 

 by looking-glasses. 



(To lie continued.) 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



1 bad rather confess my ignora thanfalselj profess knowledge. Itis no shame 



not to know all things, but it is ajust Bhame to overreach in anything. — Bishop Hall. 



The Natural History Museum, South Kensington.— Considerable 

 progress lias been made with the removal of the Natural History collections 

 from the British Museum to South Kensington. The Geological collections 



have been to a great extent arranged, and the .Mammalian and Reptilian 



Galleries are nearly completed, while the Fish Gallery is in course of 

 arrangement, as well as the rooms devoted to the Invertebrate and the 



Btratigraphical collections. The cases in the Zoological Galleries are now 

 almost completed and fitted, and the Osteological and Couchological 



collections, as well as some of the Btuffed animals, have been already 

 removed to the new positions which they will henceforth occupy. It is 



expected that the transfer of the whole of the collections which are destined 

 for removal from Blootnsbury to South Kensington will be completed by 

 the end of the spring. 



The British Association. — The Council of the British Association for 

 the Advancement of Science have nominated Mr. A. G. Vernon llarcourt to 

 the office of General Secretary, in the room of the late Prof. 1''. 11. Balfour. 

 The Council, acting under the powers conferred upon them by the General 

 Committee, in accordance with their report, have appointed the following to 

 be a committee, "to draw up suggestions upon methods of more systematic 

 observations, and plans of operations for local Societies, together with a more 

 uniform mode of publication of the results of their work," and to " draw up 

 a list of local Societies which publish their proceedings": — Mr. 11. G. Ford- 

 ham (Secretary), Rev. Dr. Crosskey, Mr. C. E. De Ranee, Sir Walter Elliot, 



