BRITISH MUSEUM (NATURAL HISTORY). Ill 



A " List of Works relating to the Natural History Depart- 

 ments of the British Museum to the end of the year 1910 " was 

 prepared, printed, and issued for the use of the staff of the 

 Museum. 



Index Museum and Morphological uollections. 



In the early part of the year the exhibited collection of the 

 "Memorials of Charles Darwin" was dispersed, and the 250 

 specimens and groups of specimens borrowed from various 

 Departments of the Museum and from private individuals were 

 returned. 



An exhibition of Animals, Plants, and Minerals mentioned 

 in the Bible has been placed in one of the bays on the east side 

 of the Central Hall, it supplements the literary and historical 

 Bible Exhibition which has been arranged at Bloomsbury for 

 the Tercentenary of the Authorized Version. The Animals and 

 Minerals, respectively, have been selected, arranged, and labelled 

 by Mr. Lydekker and Dr. Herbert Smith, under the general 

 supervision of the Keepers of Zoology and Mineralogy ; the 

 Plants have been selected, arranged, and labelled by Dr. Rendle, 

 the Keeper of Botany. A guide to the exhibition has been 

 prepared and published. 



A greatly enlarged model of the Tropical Rat Flea (Xeno- 

 psylla cheopis), the Flea which is responsible for the spread of 

 plague, was set out in the middle of the Hall in July. The 

 model (that of a male) was presented by the Entomological 

 Research Committee, which has since given enlarged models of 

 the head and the hind end of the female of the same species for 

 comparison with it. 



The series of exhibits in the middle of the Hall illustrating 

 the spread of diseases of Trypanosome origin by means of 

 Tsetse Flies has been revised, enlarged, and re-labelled. 



With a view to explaining to the general visitor the 

 elementary principles of the classification of animals, plants, 

 and minerals, and with the further object of indicating to him 

 by reference to plans of the building the various Departments 

 in which he may find exhibited the fuller series of such objects 

 as he may desire to examine, specimens are being prepared for 

 exhibition in a series of four upright table-cases to be placed in 

 a prominent |)osition in the Hall. 



In view of the great interest taken in the Flight of Animals 

 in consequence of the rapid progress recently made in the science 

 of aeroplaning, specimens are being prepared to illustrate in a 

 popular manner the modes of fiight in Vertebrates and Insects. 

 The preparations are designed to explain the mechanical 

 principles involved in the link-work and leverage of the skeletal 

 parts, the power-producing mechanism (elevator and depressor 

 muscles) and its relation to the skeletal parts, the structure and 

 shape of the flight membranes, and the mode of folding of the 



