H.2 ACCOUNTS. &C., OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



IX.- -NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM, 



The total number of visitors to the Museum during the year 1885 has been 421,350, 

 being- an increase of 46,119 over the previous year. The average number on each open 

 day (every week-day in the year except Good Friday and Christmas Day) has been 

 1,354, as compared with 1,206 in 1884. 



A resolution recommending the opening of the Museum on Sunday afternoons was 

 passed at a Special General Meeting of Trustees held on 17th January 1885, but the 

 proposal did not receive the sanction of the Treasury. 



The garden in which the Museum stands has been open to the public since the 13th of 

 April, during the hours in which the Museum itself is open. 



Dui-ing the year an unusual number of large and important additions have been made 

 to the Museum by donation. These are mentioned in detail in the Reports of the 

 Keepers of the Departments, but special attention must be called here to the magnificent 

 collection of Indian birds presented by Mr. A. O. Hume, C.b. ; the almost equally im- 

 portant collections of Central American birds and insects, presented jointly by Mr. O. Sal- 

 vin, F.K.S., and Mr. F. D. Godman, F.u.s. ; and the large and varied collection of 

 geological specimens, tlie gift of Mr, J. E. Lee, of Torquay. 



A marble statue of the illustrious natui'alist, Chai'les Dai'win, executed by Mr, Boehra, 

 K,A., for the subscribers to the Darwin Memorial, has been placed on the grand staircase 

 of the Central Hall. The public unveiling and presentation of the statue took place on 

 the 9th of June, when an address was delivered on behalf of the Darwin Memorial Com- 

 mittee by the Chairman, l^rofessor Huxley, P.K.S., to which His Royal Highness the 

 Prince of Wales, who had graciously consented to represent the Trustees on this occasion, 

 replied, A large number of the Trustees of the Museum, subscribers to the Memorial, 

 p.nd other persons interested, were present. 



The general design of the Introductory or Elementary Biological Collection pro- 

 posed to be placed in the bays of the Central Hall was described in the last Report. 

 During the year the first bay on the west side, containing a series of specimens, with 

 explanatory labels, illustrating the principal elementaiy facts concerning the osteology 

 and dentition of the Mammalia, has been nearly completed, and some progress has been 

 made in the third bay devoted to the class of Birds. 



Considerable progress has been made throughout the Museum in the introduction of 

 descriptive labels to the specimens, which cannot but afford great assistance to those 

 visitors who wish to make an intelligent study of the collections. This is a subject to 

 which attention will be continually directed. 



The room in the basement floor, in which the fine collection of skeletons of Cetacea is 

 deposited, has been opened to the public since April last. It is to be regretted that no 

 better accommodation has been afforded in the building for the disj^lay of specimens of 

 such an important and still little known group of animals. The imperfect lighting has 

 been partially remedied by the use of reflectors, but the massive columns by which the 

 room is intersected interfere with the complete view of any of the larger skeletons, and 

 already almost all the available space is occupied, although some of the largest and most 

 interesting species, including the Greenland Right-"W hale, are still unrepresented. 



The gallery devoted to recent Fishes has also been arranged and opened during the year, 

 and a large and well-lighted room in the Central Tower has been fitted up for the in- 

 creasing collection of cellular plants, previously very insufficiently accommodated in the 

 Eastern Tower. 



The following guide-books have been published during the year: — 



1. Guide to the Galleries of Mammalia (Mammalian, Osteological and Cetacean) in 

 the Department of Zoology. 



2. Guide to the Gallery of Reptilia in the Department of Zoology. 



3. Guide to the Collection of Fossil Fishes in the Department of Geology and Palae- 

 ontology. 



4. Guide to the Gould Collection of Humming Birds. Fourth Edition. With map. 



5. Guide to the Mineral Galleiy, with an introduction to the study of Minerals. New 

 Edition. With diagrams and plan. 



6. The Students' Index to the Collection of Minerals. New Edition, 



The three first named are abundantly illustrated by woodcuts, and form not only guides 

 to the collections, but condensed manuals on the subjects to which they relate. Several 

 other guide-books of similar character are in hand, and will shortly be completed. 



or Catalogues the following volumes have been published : — 



1, Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum (Natural History), Vol, X, 

 Passeriformes, or Perching Birds. Fringilliformes, Part I. By R. Bowdler Sharpe. 

 With woodcuts and twelve coloured plates. 



2-3. Catalogue of the Lizards in the British Museum (Natural History), Second 

 Edition. Vols, I. and H. By George Albert Boulenger, With numerous lithographic 

 plates, 



4-5. Catalogue 



