436 



A NEW NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM. 



(plate XVIII.). 



On Saturday, November 12th, His Worship the Mayor of 

 Hull (Councillor T. S. Taylor) opened the new Natural History 

 Museum in that city. This occupies the rooms, formerly 

 the Art Galleries, which have now been connected with the 

 Municipal Museum at the Royal Institution, by two new en- 

 trances. There was a particularly large and representative 

 gathering, and the visitors were entertained to tea by the Chair- 

 man of the Museums Committee, Alderman Brown, and Mrs. 

 Brown. Amongst those present were His Worship the Sheriff 

 of Hull, Sir Luke White, M.P., Mr. T. R. Ferens, M.P., Sir 

 James Reckitt, Mr. and Mrs. Wickham-Boynton, members of 

 the Hull Museums and Educational Committees, and the Presi- 

 dents or other representatives of the Hull Literary and Philo- 

 sophical Society, the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union, the Hull 

 Geological Society, the Hull Scientific and Field Naturalists' 

 Club, East Riding Antiquarian Society, East Riding Nature 

 Study Committee, and other similar institutions which encour- 

 age the museum in its work, and most of which have helped 

 with their collections. 



There are three galleries : one devoted to the birds, one 

 to mammals, and one to osteology. A part of the birds' 

 room is shewn in the photograph reproduced on Plate XVHL 

 In this and the adjoining corridors is housed the collection of 

 British birds, which is particularly representative. It includes 

 the Sir Henry Boynton collection, which has recently been 

 lent to the museum, the Pease collection, the Riley Fortune 

 collection of Yorkshire birds recently purchased, the Anderson 

 collection, as well as those formerly in the museum. All these 

 have been amalgamated, and the duplicates — over sixty cases — 

 have been distributed amongst the Higher Grade Schools in 

 Hull, the School of Art, etc. There are in all about 900 birds 

 in the museum, occupying 420 cases. Along one side of the 

 room are a number of cases shewing the various types of eggs 

 in their natural surroundings, those of the birds at Spurn being 

 particularly attractive. Below these are several cabinets con- 

 taining birds' eggs, etc., and in a corridor is a large case shewing 

 the heads, feet, etc., of typical forms of birds. 



The mammal room is also instructive, as the various species 

 are grouped and represented in their natural surroundings, 

 the groups of otters, badgers, etc., being well shewn. The 



Naturalist, 



