98 ACCOUNTS, ETC., OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



Department of Zoology. 



I. — Arrangement and Conservation. 



The usual precautions have been taken for the preservation 

 of the collection. All acquisitions have been registered and 

 entered in the Catalogues and manuscript lists, and finally 

 incorporated with the collection. 



Mammalia. — As a result of the rapid growth of the 

 Zoological Collection since its transference from Bloomsbury, 

 it has become necessary to convert the pavilion at the end of 

 the Osteological Gallery into a store-room for the reception of 

 the study collection of large mammals, which has been crowded 

 out from its place in the basement by the increasing require- 

 ments of the Entomological Section. The cases in which this 

 series was stored have, therefore, been transferred from the base- 

 ment to the Osteological Saloon. They are now arranged in 

 four blocks of one tier each, which, with the addition of some 

 new cases, will allow room for the re-arrangement and 

 extension, which the congested condition of most of the 

 groups required. Space has been also provided for future 

 additions. 



These alterations entailed the removal of the large skeletons 

 which had been exhibited in the pavilion. Some are now in 

 the public Osteological Gallery, while three — an elephant, a 

 rhinoceros and a musk-ox — have been transferred to the 

 Geological Department for exhibition together with the 

 extinct forms. 



It is expected that the temporary iron-building intended 

 for the exhibition of the Cetacea, and which is now almost 

 ready for the reception of this collection, will shortly be 

 handed over to the Trustees by the Office of Works. 



Upwards of sixty blocks for mounting the horns of the 

 Ruminant Mammalia have been prepared^ and the names of 

 the specimens, localities, donors, &c., written upon them. 



Of the more important objects which have been mounted 

 for exhibition the following may be mentioned : — 



A common Gazelle (Gazella dorcas) and an Aoudad 

 {Ammotragus tragelaphus), both from near Biskra in 

 Algeria ; a Loder's Gazelle {Gazella loderi) from the Tunisian 

 Sahara ; and a specimen of Gervicapra hohor from East 

 Africa. 



Aves : — The collection of skeletons of Birds has been 

 removed from the studies in the basement to the north- 

 west corridor, and has been temporarily arranged in 



systematic 



