rQ ACCOUNTS, &C. OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



The Guide-books published during the year are the undermentioned : — 



A General Guide to the British Museum (Natural History). With plans and a view 

 of the building. (New edition.) 1887. 8vo. 2d. 



Guide to the Galleries of M animalia ( .M ammalian, Osteological, Cetacean) in the Depart- 

 ment of Zoology of the British Museum (Natural History). 3rd edition. 1887. 57 woodcuts 

 and two plans. 8vo. 4 d. 



Guide to the Gould Collection of Humming Birds in the Biitish Museum (Natural 

 History). 1887. 4 woodcuts and one map showing the Distribution of Humming Birds. 

 (New edition.) 1887. 8vo. 2d. 



Guide to the Galleries of Keptiles and Fishes in the Department of Zoology of the 

 British Museum (Natural History). 1887. 101 woodcuts and one plan. 8vo. 6 d. 



Guide to the Shell and Starfish Galleries (MoUusca, Echinodermata, Vermes) in the 

 Department of Zoology of the British Museum (Natural History). 1887. 51 woodcuts and 

 one plan. 8vo. 4 d. 



Guide to the Exhibition Galleries of the Department of Geology and Palseontology in 

 the British Museum (Natural History). 4th edition. 1887. 49 woodcuts and one plan. 

 Svo. 4 d. 



An Introduction to the Study of Meteorites, with a List of the Meteorites represented 

 in the collection of the British Museum (Natural History). 1887. (New edition.) Plan. 

 Svo. 2 d. 



The Student's Index to the Collection of Minerals in the Biitish Museum (Natural 

 History). 1887. (New edition.) Plan. Svo. 2d, 



Progress has been made in the work of the General Library; 2,320 volumes and 2,458 

 maps have been added by purcha^^e, presentation and transfer, the maps including Sections 

 I to XI of the Admiialty Charts, &c., and the sheets of the Ordnance Survey ; 1,781 

 volumes have been catalogued; and 1,249 volumes have been bound in 717. The total 

 number of books in the Library up to the end of the year was 17,593, all of which are 

 catalogued; while the maps number 2,517. 



" W. H. Flower. 



Department of Zoology. 



The work of the department during the past year has consisted chiefly in incorporating 

 the numerous recent additions to the study collections, and in examining those which 

 required immediate attention on account of some special interest attached to them. Reports 

 on these latter have been published. 



Two new Guides and new issues of two of the old ones have been published. 



Progress has been made with the work of cataloguing and describing the collections, 

 one volume having been published, three being near completion, and four others in a more 

 or less advanced state of preparation. 



The work on the collecticns of Corals and Sponges, to which, for some years past, 

 much attention had been paid, and in which most valuable materials have been accu- 

 mulated for a comprehensive study oi' those classes, has been interrupted by the loss, 

 through resignation, of the services of the two able assistants who were in charge of 

 them. 



More than 4,000 duplicates have been distributed among five institutions. 



The increase of the Department by 270,000 specimens within the short space of four 

 years, causes already the want to be felt for more room, more especially in the galleries 

 devoted to the exhibition of Mammals and Fishes and in the Bird and InsectEooms. But 

 the need for increased accommodation is nowhere more pressing than in the spirit-building, 

 which is now completely filled, so that the collections of mammals and shells preserved in 

 spirits have had to be transferred into the main building. 



The two principal events of the year have been the acquisition of two most important and 

 valuable collections, viz., the collection of metamorphoses of British Lepidoptera formed 

 and presented by Lord W plsiiigham, f.e.s., and the " Tweeddale " collection of Birds and 

 ornithological works presented by Captain R. G. Wardlaw Ramsay ; they will be more 

 fully referred to in a subsequent part of this report ("Acquisitions.") 



The 



