254 NATUKAL HISTORY OF 



rare Chlamy^phorus retusus from Bolivia, together with the 

 fine collection of Armadillos, which includes, among other 

 rarities, a full-grown monstrous specimen of one species, with 

 six legs. 



Of the general arrangement of the Museum the following 

 outline, borrowed from a description of it, furnished by Dr. 

 Burmeister to the pages of a German periodical, may suffice. 

 It consists of a suite of seven rooms, situated in the upper 

 storey of an edifice, to which a staircase of thirty-two steps 

 conducts the visitor. Of these apartments the first is devoted 

 to the greater portion of the ornithological collection, contained 

 in seventeen elegant cases, while the second, a hall one 

 hundred and thirty-two feet in length by eighteen in breadth, 

 contains, in addition to the remainder of the birds, the fol- 

 lowing objects : — On the north side the collection of recent 

 Mammalia in eight cases ; on the east side four cases of other 

 animals ; and on the west side eight cases of fossil bones. 

 The middle of this sala is occupied principally with the 

 following specimens : — 1st, A large specimen of Sjphargis cori- 

 acea, taken at the mouth of the Eiver Plate ; 2d, a complete 

 specimen of a female Mylodon gracilis ; 3d, the pelvis of a 

 male of Mylodon gracilis, a complete fore-leg of Megatherium, 

 a hind-leg of Megatherium, with half of the pelvis, and a 

 femur and some vertebrae of Mylodon giganteum ; Ath, a 

 sternum of Megatherium ; 5th, a carapace of a Glyptodon ; 

 6th, the entire skeleton of the same individual ; ^th, a skele- 

 ton of a horse. The third contains a collection of engravings ; 

 and the fourth, which serves at the same time for a workroom 

 for the director, is occupied by the entomological collection. 

 The sixth is the laboratory, and the seventh is employed as a 

 storeroom. The specimens in the Museum are chiefly derived 

 from America and the south of Europe, and Dr. Burmeister 



