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



Incorporation of new rarities in the portion of space allotted and restricted to previous 

 acquisition's, commonly involves, under existing circumsiances, re-arrangemeni of the 

 whole of the occupants of the store-cabinets. 



A large portion of the class Echinoderniata is now exhibited and systematically 

 arranged. All the specimens of this class are in a slate of preservation. 



The Corals and other Radiata, in the Public Gallery.octupy small detached glazed cases in 

 such spaces as can, with least inconvenience, be taken from the gangways of the iVlammalian 

 Saloon. The instructiveness of this part of tlie Zoological series is affected by the want of 

 an appropriate gallery, such as that which allows of the arrangement of the Molluscous 

 shells in the order of their progressive affiniiies. 



The collection of the Osteological specimens, human and comparative, is in a state of 

 preservation. The additions to tiiis series have been unavoidably numerous, and in the 

 restricted space which can be afforded to the collection in the basement, render more 

 difficult the access to the specimens ; the present conditions of their stowage cause great 

 obstacles to application in the comparison of fossil and recent bones. All the specimens 

 are ])reserved in a state fit for future articulation and arrangement, when a gallery for their 

 exhibition may be provided. 



The exhibited series of Nests and Nidamental structures, and of the British Natural 

 History, are severally in a good state of preservation. Present conditions of space necessitate 

 the display of the extensive series of horns and antlers apart from the stuffed specimens and 

 skeletons of the species to which they belong or are allied. 



1 he portion of the series of the fossil remains which is exhibited is instructively 

 arranged and labelled, and in most instances of easy access for scientific examination and 

 comparison. The portion of the fossil series kept in store is partly arranged in glazed 

 cabinets in a recess to which the public have not access, partly in drawers; but for the 

 most part easily available to the student and scientific visitor. All the fossil specimens 

 exhibited and in store, are in a good state of preservation. 



A large portion of the series of Mineralogy is exhibited under conditions of arrange- 

 ment, with illustrative models and indices, and with generic and specific labelHng, greatly 

 facilitating its instructive study and scientific applications. All the Minerals displayed and 

 in store are in a perfect state of preservation. 



Some of the additions to the department of Zoology call for special notice. , 



Among the acquisitions in the class Aves, the bones of the Dodo {Didus ineptus, Linn.) 

 were at the time of their reception the rarest. This bird, exterminated in the Island of 

 Mauritius about two centuries ago, has since been one of the "curiosities of Natural 

 History," through the extreme paucity of its fragmentary remains in European Museums. 



The dried foot has been a chief rarity in the department of Natural History of the 

 British Museum since its foundation; and has been the subject of many descriptions and 

 disquisitions. The life-size painting of the Bird, presented to the British Museum at its 

 foundation, was stated by the donor, Edwards, who obtained it from Sir Hans Sloane, to 

 have been "drawn in Holland from the living bird brought from St. Maurice's Island;" 

 but evidence of its authenticity and reliability has hitherto been felt to be a desideratum 

 by most naturalists. Every endeavour to obtain for ihe Museum remains of the extinct 

 species from the island to which it had been restricted, had failed until the acquisition here 

 reported on. The occasion of a visit to Ensflaud by the Right Rev. the Bishop of Mauritius, 

 in 186. 3, was availed of to interest his Lordship in regard to this desideratum. 



In October 1865, inlbrmation was received from the Bishop, that Mr. George Clark, 

 master of the Government School at Mahebourg, Mauritius, had profited by diggings for 

 marl-manure in a bog in that vicinity to collect the bones so disinterred ; and the assiduous 

 researches of Mr. Clark were rewarded by the acquisition of an almost entire skeleton of the 

 Dodo, which was transmitted, at the Bishop's instance, to the Museum and purchased by 

 the Trustees. 



These remains have satisfactorily established the authenticity of the dried foot, and the 

 general accuracy of the painting which represents the now extinct bird. 



In the oldest notice and representation of the Dodo (Van Necq's Voyage, in 1598, in 

 the view of the shore of the Island of Mauritius on which the Dodo is walking, folio 3), a 

 large tortoise is also figured. Bones of such tortoises, obtained from the bog, near 

 Mahebourg, have been presented to the Musueni by Colonel Anson. 



Many specimens of the Cetacea, or Whale-tribe, have been addedto the Zoology, most of 

 them rare and some of unusual interest. Of the great whales and cachalots of commerce 

 {Balcena, PUyseter) the head is remarkable for the enormous proportions of the face and 

 jaws as compared with the brain-case; one of the acquisitions of 1866 exhibits the opposite 

 extreme, e.g., the dwarf cachalot {^Euphysetes simus), from the Indian Ocean, in which the 

 proportions of cranium and face are almost those deemed characteristic of the Human 

 species. This specimen is part of the rich donation of Indian species of these whales by Sir 

 Walter Elliot, k.c.s.i., late resident at Vizagapatam, Madras. The gradations of structure 

 between the two extremes, above referred to, are most suggestive and of the deepest signi- 

 ficance in regard to the supreme question in Natural History — the origin of species. All 

 these additions, of which the size permits, are stored with the rest of the Osteological 

 Collection in the dark vaults thereto appropriated. The skeleton of the great cachalot 

 {Physeter macrocephalus) obtained from the huge example stranded on the shores of 

 Caithness in 1864, continues sa'e and in good c aidition in the locality hired for its reception 

 at Camden Town. 



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