484 TEE ZOOLOGIST. 



EDITORIAL GLEANINGS. 



The British Museum Blue Book, giving among other returns a "State- 

 ment of the Progress made in the Arrangement and Description of the 

 Collections, and an Account of Objects added to them in the year 1896," 

 has been issued. Its perusal leaves no doubt as to the prosperity of our 

 great institution, and is as satisfactory to the zoologist as to the British 

 ratepayer. To really estimate its present flourishing condition it may be 

 well to refer to the estimation in which it was held some seventy years ago. 

 In the first number of the first volume of ■ The Magazine of Natural 

 History,' published in 1829, a writer thus expresses himself: — " There is 

 no country that has the same facilities for procuring objects of natural 

 history from every region of the globe as Great Britain ; there is no 

 country where larger sums of money have been expended to procure them ; 

 and yet there is no country in the civilized world where there are fewer 

 facilities offered to the student of natural history than in England." Again, 

 and in the same volume, we read : — " The zoological collections in the 

 British Museum may be briefly dismissed. The whole collection of insects 

 is contained in four small cases; nor are these completely filled. The 

 birds and mammiferous quadrupeds are arranged according to the order of 

 Linnaeus, but want of room prevents their being placed in situations suffi- 

 ciently accessible for inspection. The species of quadrupeds are not 

 numerous, owing, I believe, to the decay which too speedily takes place in 

 stuffed specimens, particularly in the atmosphere of London. From the 

 liability to decay, the difficulty with which they are replaced, and the great 

 space they occupy, stuffed specimens of quadrupeds might perhaps be con. 

 veniently dismissed from our collections, except of such rare animals as can 

 seldom, if ever, be brought alive to Europe." 



An inspection of our National Galleries is now the best answer to the 

 warnings of this Cassandra ; well-stocked entomological rooms represent 

 the four badly filled small cases ; the birds are unrivalled, and our British 

 ornithological fauna may be said to be seen in a state of nature ; while as 

 to the boycotted quadrupeds, the mammals are one of the strong features of 

 the institution, and are rapidly becoming too numerous for the sole hands 

 of the talented mammalogist in charge. It is impossible to allude to the 

 many acquisitions of the last year, but we may draw attention to some of 

 the principal additions derived from " Purchases," " Bequests," and 

 " Presents." 



