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



The Local Parliament of Sydney, New South Wales, having taken into favourable 

 consideration a recommendation that the Government of New South Wales should cause 

 a careful and systematic exploration to be made of the Limestone Caves of Wellington 

 Valley, voted a sum of 200 I. for that purpose, and directed that the duplicates of the 

 Fossils so discovered should be transmitted to the British Museum. These have been 

 received, and include most instructive illustrations of recent and extinct forms of Mar- 

 supial animals, as well as (»f some extiact Birds and Reptiles, peculiar to and characteristic 

 of the Australian Continent. The original specimens on which was founded the Paper 

 in the " Philosophical Transactions" for 1870, containing a description and restoration 

 of the gigantic extinct Australian Marsupial Herbivore {Diprotodon australis) are 

 exhibited in the Geological Gallery. 



The restoration of the extinct gigantic Birds of New Zealand {Dinornis, Aptornis, (Sfc.) 

 has now extended to inferences, from specimens noted in the Reports from the Depart- 

 ment of Geology, as to internal structures, e.g., of the gizzard and windjnpe : ossified and 

 partially fossilized tracheal rings of five species of Dinornis, and of one species of Aptornis, 

 are exhibited in the Department of Geology. 



Accessions of specimens of the bones of the Dodo {Didus ineptus, L.), have afforded 

 the means of recomposing the entire skeleton of that extinct bird of the Island of Mauri- 

 tius ; a well articulated specimen is now exhibited in the Gallery of Ornithology. 



Eggs of an extinct bird of Madagascar, which, if a specimen had been obtained by a 

 merchant of Bagdad, might well have suggested the idea of the gigantic " Roc " of 

 Arabian, romance, have fi-om time to time reached Europe since the arrival of the first 

 specimen at the Jardin des Plantes, Paris, in 1851. In the past year, the Department of 

 Geology acquired by purchase two specimens of these eggs from fluviatile deposits in 

 Madagascar. They differ somewhat in shape as well as size ; the smaller egg has a cir- 

 cumference in the long axis of 30^ inches, in the short axis of 26^ inches ; the larger egg 

 yields, in the same admeasurements, 36 inches and 30 inches respectively. 



The steady increase in the number of scientific visitors and students admitted to the 

 stored collections, and availing themselves of such facilities as their present localities 

 afford, attests the growing sense of the value of the Natural History Sciences, and pleads 

 for a speedy acquisition of adequate space and suitable conditions for applying the 

 National Collections to their advancement and diffusion. 



Richard Owen. 



Depaetmeut of Zoology. 



The Zoological Collection, which comprises the several classes of the Animal Kingdom, 

 has been increased during the year 1870 to the extent of 8,014 specimens. 



The following table exhibits the relative number of specimens that has been added to 

 each class : — 



Vertebrata 1,952 



Annulosa -------- 1,969 



MoJlusca and Radiata ------ 4,093 



Total - - - 8,014 



Each specimen whether acquired by presentation or purchase, has been entered in the 

 manuscript Register of Accessions with a corresponding date and number to that affixed to 

 the specimen, recording at the same time the locality in which it was collected, and how 

 it was obtained. 



Many of these examples are highly interesting as being the type specimens on which 

 the species were established by zoologists in monographs, and in papers published in 

 the various periodicals. 



Others are most useful for completing the series previously contained in the collection, 

 either in the way of additional species, or as specimens illustrating the differences that 

 occur in allied S2)ecies in various localities, or as exhibiting the gradual changes which 

 take place during their development and growth towards maturity. 



The portions of the Zoological Collection which are exhibited in the cases in the public 

 rooms for the instruction and amusement of students and visitors, as Avell as the series of 

 skins and bones of animals kept in boxes, also the collections of vertebrated, molluscous, and 

 radiated animals which are preserved in spirits, and the various portions of the general 

 collection of Annulosa, which are contained in cabinets for the use of the scientific stu- 

 dents, have been in part re-arranged, with a view of adopting the new systems of certain 

 groups that have been promulgated by modern naturalists ; at the same time allowing 

 the new species and specimens lately obtained to be added in the general arrangement, 

 thus facilitating the ready access to the entire series of specimens contained in the 

 Museum Collection when required for the purpose of study. 



Two thousand six hundred and fifty-five students have visited the Department of Zoo- 

 logy during the year 1870, for the special purpose of scientifically studying the various 

 classes of the Animal Kingdom which it embraces. 



The 



