ACCOUNTS, ESTIMATES, &C. OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



The following Coins, procured from Professor Verkovich of Belgrade, also demand a 

 special notice : — A very archaic Dodecadrachm of Macedon or Thrace, of extreme rariiy ; 

 a Tetradrachm of Philip V. of Macedon, with his portrait, very rare ; a Didiachm of 

 Seuthes I., King of Thrace, unique ; a small Coin of Olynthus in Macedon, very rare. 



The Oriental Series has been enriched by the purchase from Sir H. C. Rawlinson, k.c.b., 

 Her Majesty's Envoy Extraordinary to the Court of Persia, of a collection of Gold Coins of 

 Seistan, entirely new to the Museum cabinets, and of historical importance. Some Silver 

 Coins of the Samanian Dynasty of Persia,. found intermixed with Saxon Coins at Golds- 

 borouoh, in Yorkshire, have been purchased of the Hon. and Rev. E. Lascelies, and may 

 be mentioned as of interest for the illustration of the commercial relations of this country 

 with the East under the Saxon kings. 



Samuel Birch. 



Departments op Natural Histort. 



In the Department of Zoology, the specimens arranged and exhibited in the public galle- 

 ries, as well as those kept unstuffed and diied in drawers and presses, and those preserved 

 in spirits in rooms in the basement, are in a good slate of pi'eservation. 



Their state of arrangement and registration, in regard to nomenclature, and geographical 

 and other relations, is such as to render both the exhibited and unexhibited specimens avail- 

 able for scientific reference, comparison, and study. These conditions have attracted much 

 use by working Naturalists during the past year. 



Some important improvements have been effected in the systematic arrangement of certain 

 groups of animals, especially of the Insect class, consequent upon special study, and pub- 

 lished descriptions of specimens in official catalogues and private works or memoirs. 



The collection of Osteological specimens, now in the Basement story, is in a state of pre- 

 servation. 



In the Geological Department the fossil specimens of Plants, and of the several classes of 

 Animals, are in a good state of preservation. Manyfo?sils of the Mammalian and Reptilian 

 classes have had their condition, in respect of instructive display of characters, improved 

 since their reception in the Museum bv the careful removal of matrix, by the re-adjustment 

 of dislocated parts, and by the restoration of the lost cementing or consolidating animal 

 principles. Thus, some unusual examples of fossil ivory, forming almost perfect tusks of 

 great size and peculi;ir curvature, of the rarer variety or species of extinct British elephant 

 {Euelephas antiquus, Fr.), are now displayed in their entire extent, and with every appear- 

 ance of durability. 



Corresponding labour and skill have been applied, where needed, in the improvement as 

 well as conservation of the fossil shells, crustacea, echinoderms, and corals. 



Improved arrangements have been carried out during the past year in the series of Mam- 

 malian Fossils from the Eocene and Miocene strata ; in the Cephalopodous class of 

 Mollusca, and in the series of Fossil Plants ; which latter series, in the proportion arranged 

 and displayed, has been much enriched by the acquisitions from the CEningen beds, from the 

 Briickmann Collection. 



The Collection of Minerals is in a good state of preservation, and in an improved state of 

 arrangement. The additions during the past year have much improved the Collection in 

 its scientific applications. 



Amongst the additions to the Zoological Department, the Aye-aye {Chiromys Madagasca- 

 riensis, Cuv.) deserves a special notice. For this specimen the Museum is indebted to the 

 zealous efforts of the Hon. Dr. Sandwith, Colonial Secretary at the Mauritius, who obtained 

 the animal alive from Madagascar, to which island the Chiromys is peculiar; and, on its 

 death, took all the requisite pains for its perfect preservation, in which state it reached the 

 Museum. It is the first specimen received in England, and the second well preserved 

 one which has been transmitted to Europe ; all previous de»criptions and figures of the species 

 having been derived from the skin of the Chiromys brought from Madagascar in the last 

 century, by Sonnini, to the Jardin des Plantes, Paris. The peculiar dentition of this arboreal 

 Lemur enables it to gnaw through hard wood down to the boring caterpillars on which it 

 subsists ; its fore-paw is singularly modified to extract the caterpillar from its so exposed 

 burrow ; the organ of hearing is large, and the sense acute, to enable the Aye-aye to detect 

 the hidden operations of the grub in the tree which it inhabits. 



Dr. Livingstone, F.R.S., has transmitted from a district north of the Zambesi a series of 

 jaws of the African Elephant, yielding valuable information on the changes of dentition 

 and the characters of the successive grinding teeth in that species. Mr. Soares has pre- 

 sented a tusk of an elephant from Mozambique, showing the very rare spiral variety of 

 curvature. 



In the case specially devoted to the Nestorine Parrots, the Nestor produclus, from Philip 

 Island, merits attention as being a species which has recently become extinct. In the course 

 of time this specimen will possess an interest and value akin to that of the Dodo in the 

 Ashmolean Museum, prior to the destruction of that unique specimen. 



The large short-winged Cooi{Notornis Manlellt), from the Middle Island of New Zealand, 

 0.24. C also 



