42 BRITISH VERTEBRATES. 



accurately modelled from nature. Great care has also been taken 

 in preserving the natural form and characteristic attitudes of the 

 Birds themselves. Among the more attractive cases are, near 

 the centre of the gallery, a pair of Puffins, feeding their 

 single young one, and Black-throated Divers, with their eggs 

 in a hollow in the grass on the edge of a mountain-loch in 

 Sutherland. Hen-harriers, the male grey and the female brown, 

 with their nest among the heather from the moorland of the 

 same county. On the left of this is a Peregrine Falcon's eyrie, 

 on the ledge of a rocky cliff, containing three white downy nest- 

 lings. Also various species of Ducks, especially the Eed-headed 

 Pochard on the sedgy border of a Norfolk mere. In the last 

 bay but one on the right side is a nest of the Heron, in 

 a fir-tree, with the two old and three nearly fledged young 

 birds. Various species of GuUs and a particularly beautiful 

 group of Arctic Terns from the Shetland Islands, are exhibited 

 in the middle Une towards the west end of the gallery and in 

 the eighth and ninth bays. In the eighth bay on the right side 

 and in the adjoining passage are Plovers, Sandpipers, Snipes, 

 &c., some of which (especially the Einged and Kentish 

 Plovers) show the wonderful adaptation of the colouring of the 

 eggs and young birds to their natural surroundings for the 

 purpose of concealment. In the second passage leading to 

 the Coral gallery are the Ptarmigan and Capercaillie from 

 Scotland, and in the adjacent part of the middle line Wood- 

 Pigeons and Turtle-Doves building their simple, flat nests 

 of sticks in ivy-clad trees. In the fourth, sixth and seventh 

 bays on the left are Sand-Martins and Kingfishers, showing, 

 by means of sections of the banks of sand or earth, the form 

 and depth of the hole in which the eggs are placed ; and the 

 nests of the Swift, Swallow, and House-Martin, all in portions 

 of human habitations. 

 Pavilion, with The " pavilion " at the west end of the Bird gallery is devoted 



British land ^^ ^}^q exhibition of the land and freshwater Vertebrated Animals 

 and Fresh- 

 water of the British Islands. The larger Mammals and Fishes occupy 



Yertebrates. ^jjg wall-case on the north side, which is surmounted with 



horns. In the two pairs of centre cases is exhibited the series 



of British Birds, which is supplemented by the groups already 



referred to. The wall-case on the north side of the archway 



