592 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VII. No. 174. 



Dating badly-stuffed or worn-out specimens 

 and replacing them as opportunities arise 

 by the best examples of modern taxidermy 

 is one which must ever continue if the 

 Museum is to be maintained as an institu- 

 tion worthy of the nation. As an instance 

 of the difference between the old style and 

 the uew, attention may be directed to the 

 fine specimen of a wild lion, shot by Mr. S. 

 L. Hinde, an of&cer in the service of the 

 British East Africa Protectorate, near Ma- 

 chakos, on August 28, 1897, which is now 

 splendidly set up in a prominent position 

 among the carnivora, having lately taken , 

 the place of the old male menagerie speci- 

 men, grotesque- looking at the best, pre- 

 sented years ago to the Museum by the well- 

 known showman Van Amburgh. 



A feature of the extensive changes at 

 present being made is the gradual disap- 

 pearance of the polished sycamore stands 

 which for very many years have been in 

 use throughout the zoological department. 

 The light color and reflecting surfaces of 

 these stands not only obtrude themselves 

 on the attention of the visitor, but they do 

 not at all harmonize with the general tone 

 of the specimens. The diflBculty has been 

 to find a good substitute. After many ex- 

 periments of different colors and kinds of 

 surface it has been finally resolved to adopt 

 a suggestion made to Sir William Flower 

 by the late Lord Leighton to use for the ma- 

 jority of the stands a dull surface of a good 

 cigar-brown, produced by staining the wood. 



Evidence of reform and reorganization is 

 to be seen in the bird gallery, and here it 

 may be noted that the formal turned 

 perches on which the birds were mounted, 

 and which necessitated a perfect uniformity 

 of position, are being replaced by pieces of 

 natural branches, allowing the taxidermist 

 far greater freedom and variety in mount- 

 ing the specimens. The new order or clas- 

 sification of the class Aves commences on 

 the north side of the gallery, with the 



struthious birds, or ostrich tribe, including 

 the emus and cossowaries of Australia, the 

 rheas of South America, and the living 

 apteryx and, but recently extinct dinornis, 

 or moa, of N'ew Zealand, and then will pro- 

 ceed through the tinamous, game birds, 

 pigeons, rails, plovers, gulls, petrels, and 

 ducks to the large saloon at the western 

 end of the gallery, where the pelicans and 

 cormorants and some of the birds of prey 

 will be exhibited. On the south side of the 

 gallery will be arranged the remainder of 

 the birds of prey, the owls, parrots, and 

 other picarian birds as well as the perching 

 birds, with which the arrangement will 

 conclude on the left of the main entrance to 

 the gallery. A student, therefore, wishing 

 to examine the higher forms of bird life can, 

 when the work is finished, begin on the left 

 or south side of the room and pursue his 

 studies in regular sequence until he arrives 

 at the ostriches and other flightless birds, or 

 he may commence with the latter and end 

 with the highest forms of passeriformes or 

 perching bii'ds. So far the rearrangement 

 has been completed to the game birds, and 

 many splendid examples of pheasant, part- 

 ridges and grouse are to be seen. An ad- 

 dition made within the last few days is the 

 group of peafowl, perhaps the most striking 

 and beautiful case in the gallery. It in- 

 cludes examples of the common peafowl, 

 one of the males with the train expanded, 

 a pair of the Burmese peafowl, a hybrid be- 

 tween these species bred in the zoological 

 gardens, and an example of the black- 

 shouldered peacock — a very handsome va- 

 riety of the common species which has not 

 been met with in a wild state. Among the 

 pigeons which have just been provisionally 

 placed in their case may be seen a fine pair 

 of the now nearly extinct passenger pigeon 

 (Edopistes migratorius) . These are re- 

 mounted examples which have already 

 done nearly fifty years' service, but look as 

 fresh as if they had been shot yesterday. 



