Arranging Museum Cases for Birds. 67 



invariably ' sky,' the artistic eye was not offended, nor was 

 the scientific value of the exhibit impaired. A few inches in 

 height could be gained, if necessary, by inserting thin pieces 

 of wood between the fronts of the cases. These were painted 

 black, in harmony with the front edges of the cases, and were 

 hardly noticeable. But from the way in which this type of 

 case usually recedes from front to back, together with their 

 varying depths, a regular scaffolding of laths and boards was 

 necessary at the back, somewhat resembling the appearance 

 of the underworld behind the Mappin terraces at the Zoo, 

 excepting that in the Museum they cannot be seen, as between 

 the cornice and the wall, there is a covering of matchboarding 

 which keeps out the dust, cigar-ends, waste paper, etc. 



As the work proceeded laterally the same scheme of filling 

 in spaces by thin strips of black wood had to be resorted to, 

 as will be seen in Fig. 1. 



On the right-hand side of the main room (see The 

 Naturalist, December, 1910, Plate XVIII.), the lower three 

 feet was occupied by drawers, containing the collections of 

 birds' eggs, etc. The distance of the front of these from the 

 wall had to be determined by the depth of the drawers, and 

 was rather more than the depth of the cases warranted. The 

 result was, a small space was left between the top of the 

 drawers and the bottom of the bird-cases. This was filled in 

 by representations of various typical sites ; thus one section 

 has a typical piece of sandy shingle (real sand and real shingle!) 

 with a painting of Spurn Point at the back. On this beach 

 material, were placed eggs 01 the Lesser Tern, Ring Plover, 

 and other suitable species, the natural colouring of the eggs 

 illustrating ' protective resemblance.' In another section was 

 a representation of a section of the famous Bempton cliffs, 

 with a chalk ledge (not real chalk, as real chalk didn't look 

 'real') upon which were eggs and young of the Guillemot, 

 Razorbill and Puffin. There was a typical piece of reed- 

 covered ground, with eggs of Redshank, etc. ; next a piece of 

 a Yorkshire moor, with eggs of Curlew, Grouse, etc. ; then a 

 piece of a tilled field with eggs of the Stone Curlew, from a 

 well-known Yorkshire station ; another was a representation 

 of a stream side, with sections showing the nests and eggs of 

 the Sand Martin and Kingfisher, respectively, at the ends of 

 the burrows, and so on. And so we got our house in order. 



And then we began all over again, and tried to further 

 improve, and I believe succeeded. The wall at the far end 

 of the large room was first attacked. It so happened that it 

 was the smallest, and contained the Grouse, Ptarmigan, Red- 

 shanks, Plovers, Sandpipers, Crakes, Snipe, etc. The part 

 occupied by cases measured 20 feet by 7 feet 3 inches, and, as 

 will be seen from fig. 1, contained no fewer than fifty-seven 



1917 Feb. 1. 



