66 Arranging Museum Cases for Birds. 



was deemed advisable to make an attack in the rear, and 

 remove the backs of the cases. At this stage the services of 

 a competent naturalist-taxidermist, who knew a heron from 

 a handsaw, were requisitioned, and he was kept employed for 

 some months. Fortunately, a good proportion of the cases 

 had been already painted by him, with an Italian sky-blue 

 tint ; this was adhered to for the whole collection, and the 

 result is not displeasing. Then all the gold, mahogany and 

 other variously coloured strips were either lost or painted 

 black, the birds were cleaned up, relaxed and remounted where 

 necessary, and stray butterflies ana beetles, grasses and artificial 

 flowers, and incongruous mollusca were removed, with one 

 flagrant exception which was kept as an example of how not 

 to do it. The cases were then arranged in systematic order 

 and each specimen was carefully numbered, for reference to 

 the full particulars in the catalogue,* and labelled with the 

 common and scientific names of the bird. These labels were 

 placed on the glass inside the case, at the bottom. 



The walls of the rooms, which fortunately were not broken 

 by windows, doors, or other nuisances, were then marked off, 

 the bottom line being not too low to be seen without stooping ; 

 the top one being not sufficiently high to create a Zeppelin 

 neck ; in this respect, the lines formerly occupied by the 

 pictures formed a good guide. To take the weight of the 

 cases, a long narrow table, on squared tapering legs, was 

 built, with a mahogany plinth about 3 inches deep ; and at the 

 top a fairly deep, but not too deep, cornice, was placed, the 

 distance from the wall being that of the deepest case ; all the 

 fronts of the other cases being brougnt to the line. This 

 plinth and cornice, giving a horizontal play of about six or 

 seven inches, saved the situation. 



The cases, already numbered in their natural order, 

 were then arranged as near their numerical order as was 

 possible, beginning at the left-hand side, next to the 

 entrance, and extending round the four sides of the room. 

 But as two cases were rarely of the same — or even similar 

 size, the scheme devolved into an exercise of ingenuity and 

 patience. As regards height, the space between the top 

 and the bottom of the plinth, and the top and bottom of the 

 cornice, enabled the lines to be kept. If the total neight of 

 the three, four, five or more cases was rather more than the 

 average, the bottom case was lowered to the bottom of the 

 plinth, and the top one was inserted well in towards the top 

 of the cornice ; and as the bottom of the bottom case was 

 usually ' earth ' or ' rock,' and as the top of the top case was 



* A Guide to the Birds in the Hull Museum, by T. Sheppard, 122 pages, 

 and 26 plates, 8vo, price 3d. 



Naturalist, 



