ACCOUNTS, &C., OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



British Museum (Natural History). 



STATEMENT of Progress made in the Arrangement and Description of the 

 Collections, and Account of Objects lidded to them, in the Year 1888. 



The arrangement, or rather the formation, of the Introductory Morphological Series 

 in the Entrance Hall of the Museum, has been continued during the year by additions 

 to the various sections. The sijecimens of Albinos, complete and partial, which were 

 previously scattered in different sections of the Zoological Department, and other specimens 

 of similar nature recently acquired, liave been arranged in a case on the floor of the Hall, 

 to illustrate the general subject of albinism, or absence of colouring matter in the tissues 

 constituting the external covering of the body. A case illustrating the opposite condition, 

 or melanism, is in preparation. 



Among the numerous and valuable donations which the Museum has received during 

 the yeai", the list of which will be found in the reports of the Keepers of Departments, the 

 folloAving may be alluded to here as of special interest. 



Mr. F. Ducane Godman, r. R.S., has made a magnificent gift of a collection of North 

 American birds, about 11,000 in number, forming a complete representation of the avi- 

 fauna of the United States, the value of which is enhanced by the fact that the speci- 

 mens have all been carefully named by the leading American ornithologists. In addition 

 to this costly present, which arrived most opportunely during the arranging and cata- 

 loguing the collection of birds in the Museum, the same section of the Museum has been 

 enriched by the reception of 6,285 specimens from the great collection of birds formed 

 by Rlr. F. D. Godman and Mr. O. Salvin to illustrate the Natural History of the Central 

 American region, in continuation ot the donations from the same source, recorded in 

 previous Reports. 



Valuable specimens of the fishes and cetaceans of the Persian Gulf, and the coast of 

 Arabia, have been collected and presented to the Museum l»y Surgeon Major A. S. G. 

 Jayakar, of the Indian Medical Service, now stationed at Muscat. 



A striking and instructive addition to the Gallery of extinct mammals is a carefully- 

 prepared, full-sized model of one of the most remarkable of the numerous strange forma 

 of animal life recently discovered in the tertiary formations of the Western States of 

 North America, the Uintatheriuni or Dlnoceras mirabile. This has been prepared under 

 the direction of, and presented by. Professor O. C. Marsh, of Yale College, in whose 

 great work on the Dinocerata, the skeleton of this and kindred forms are fully described 

 and figured. 



The Lectures on Geology on the Swiney Foundation were delivered in June and 

 July by Dr. "W. R. M'Nab, and attended by an average, for each of the 12 lectures, of 

 55 persons. The subject was " The Fossil Plants of the Palaeozoic Epoch." These 

 lectures are free to all visitors to the Museum. 



Duplicate specimens of Natural Hi.^tory from the British Museum collection have been 

 presented by the Trustees to the Museum of Science and Art, Edinburgh ; the Indian 

 Museum, Calcutta ; the Australian Museum, Sydney ; the Museum of Comparative 

 Zoology, Harvard College, U.S.A.; the Educational Museum, Tokio ; the Durham 

 College of Physical Science, Newcastle-on-Tyne ; the University . College of South 

 "Wales and Monmouthshire, Cardiff; the London School Board; the City of 

 London t^^chool ; the Normal School of Science, South Kensington ; and to Baron 

 Noi-denskiold. 



Exchanges of specimens have been made with the following institutions and 

 individuals : — 



Of Zoological Specimens— With the Museums of Leyden, Christiania, Lisbon, and 

 Aberdeen University ; and Messrs. H. O. Forbes, W. F. Petterd, H. Seebohm and 

 Meyer-Darcis. 



Of Fossils — With the Smithsonian Institution ; the University of Princeton, New 

 Jersey; the University Museum of Zoology, Cambridge ; Marlborough College ; Professor 

 J. W. Judd ; Mons. Cossmann ; and Messrs. Stui tz, H. H. Blanchet, R. D. Lacoe, 

 Wachsmuth and Springer. 



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