THE BOOTH MUSEUM AT BRIGHTON. 449 



History Museum in London, who, he hoped, would address the 

 meeting. 



Being thus called upon to speak, Prof. Flower said they were 

 assembled in a room that contained a collection in many respects 

 unequalled by any other in the world. In the first place, it had 

 been entirely the work of one man in a life of no great length, — 

 he had only reached the age of fifty when he died, — but who 

 devoted an extraordinary amount of energy and perseverance, 

 and also expended a very considerable amount of money, in 

 making it as perfect as possible of its kind. They must not 

 suppose for a moment that Mr. Booth was the only man who 

 ever made a collection of British birds. Birds had always been 

 favourites, and the birds of our own islands, though far less 

 remarkable for form, size, and brilliancy of plumage than those 

 of other lands, had for many reasons been peculiarly attractive. 

 The national pride which causes us to love our countrymen better 

 than foreigners includes birds as well as other bipeds. It had, 

 therefore, been the aim of many public museums, as well as 

 private lovers of natural history, to make as complete a collection 

 of British birds as possible. But it was one thing to have a 

 collection adapted and conveniently arranged for reference and 

 study by the learned ornithologist, or consisting of as many 

 specimens as could be crammed into the smallest space they 

 could occupy, without regard to their condition or their order, 

 and quite another thing to have a collection under such circum- 

 stances and so arranged as to convey the fullest possible amount 

 of information and instruction, and to excite the greatest possible 

 interest in the minds of those who, like the majority of us, 

 were not in a position to devote any large portion of our scanty 

 leisure to their study. For this latter purpose he had no hesita- 

 tion in saying it would be difficult to imagine a collection so 

 complete, and so admirably arranged and displayed, as the one 

 in which they were. He purposely avoided comparison with the 

 beautiful series, showing the nesting habits of birds, now being 

 arranged in the National Museum in London under the super- 

 vision of Dr. Giinther, because the objects of the two were in 

 many respects different, as were also the methods in which 

 they were carried out. They must recollect that the collection 

 was formed by one who was an intense lover of bird-life, one who 

 spent the greater part of his own life, night and day, summer and 



