NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 77 



Collection of British Birds. A good story is told of George 

 Bobert Gray, described by Professor Newton as a " thoroughly 

 conscientious clerk": "Being continually twitted about his 

 ignorance of birds in the field, he one day hired a gun, and 

 went into Hertfordshire to shoot birds. He was promptly 

 arrested by a keeper for trespassing." The great collection of 

 Beptiles and Batrachians has wonderfully increased even in 

 somewhat recent years. Mr. Boulenger tells us that Dr. Gray, 

 working at the Lizards in 1845, had at his disposal only 428 

 specimens, representing 152 species. During the years 1882- 

 1886, when Mr. Boulenger revised this group and prepared a 

 catalogue, the number of species recognized by him as valid was 

 1616, of which 1206 were represented in the Museum by 9820 

 specimens. The other groups have similarly increased in speci- 

 mens. In 1858, when Dr. Giinther commenced the arrangement 

 of the general collection of Fishes, it contained about 16,000 

 specimens ; "at the present day the total number of specimens 

 in the collection amounts to about 73,000." 



When we come to the Insecta the roll-call is astounding, and 

 the amount of work still to be done in identification is enormous. 

 These vast hordes of insect specimens are appalling in number, 

 and it is to the credit of the entomological department that so 

 many have been identified, and the general collection so well 

 arranged by a staff never large, but always enthusiastic. Private 

 collections are continuously finding a home in the National 

 Museum, and when we reflect oh the number of insects still 

 unknown and uncollected, the increasing number of our colonists 

 who take an interest in entomology, and the many travellers who 

 collect insects and present them to the nation, approximate 

 numeration fails to afford a conception of what is likely to appear 

 on the stock-taking list of this department in another hundred 

 years. 



We await another volume devoted to the natural history col- 

 lections of the British Museum, an institution of which all 

 naturalists may be proud, and to which the much vexed and now 

 lean taxpayer may give a grunt of satisfaction. 



