BRITISH MUSEUM (NATURAL HISTORY). 103 



besides a large quantity of unworked material. Since that 

 date it has continually been added to, until now the number of 

 specimens is about 260,000. What this means will be under- 

 stood when it is said that Lord Walsingham's munificent gift, 

 the result of 30 years' work and expenditure, will add about 

 45,000 species of Micro-Lepidoptera to the national collection, 

 •which at present possesses only about 4,000 species of these 

 small insects. 



It may be added that the study of these smaller and more 

 neglected forms of the Lepidopfcera is becoming constantly 

 more interesting from its important bearing upon horticulture, 

 agriculture, and the geographical distribution of species, as 

 well as upon the effects of isolation and environment on theii- 

 hereditary tendencies to progress, differentiation, or reversion. 



P^'esents. 



The total number of gifts received during the year by the 

 -several departments was 2,295, as compared with 2,259 in 190S. 

 Many of these comprised large numbers of individual specimens. 

 The details of ail the more important of them will be found in the 

 reports of the Keepers of the several Departments, but the 

 following may be mentioned here as of special interest : — 



From Sir John Murray, K.O.B. — The interesting collections, 

 consisting chiefly of birds and marine animals, obtained by 

 Dr. C. W. Andrews at Christmas Island, Indian Ocean. (See 

 last year's Return, page 96.) 



From the Army Medical College, London. — The collections 

 of natural history specimens hitherto preserved at the 

 College. 



From Mr. Ernest Gibson.^ — A valuable consignment of 

 Zoological specimens collected by Mr. Claude Grant in the 

 Argentine Republic, 



From His Grace the Duke of Bedford, K.G. — A collection of 

 289 mammals obtained by Mr. M. P. Anderson in China. 



From Mr. W. E. Balston. — A series of 1,125 mammals from 

 Java, collected by Mr. G. C. Shortridge. 



From the late Rev. E. J. May (by bequest). — A pair of 

 antlers of great Moose Deer, from Canada. 



From Mr. L. C. Bernacchi. — A desiccated human mummy 

 from the Peruvian Andes — the first of these specimens to come 

 to the Museum. 



From Mr. Percy I. Lathy.— A collection of 1,333 specimens 

 of butterflies from Borneo, Sumatra, etc. 



From Mrs. J. F. Walker and Mr. Gelson Walker. — The 

 important collection of fossil Brachiopoda made by the late 

 John Francis Walker, consisting of many thousand specimens 

 of all geological periods, together with the original cabinets in 

 which the collection was contained. 



