334 PEACTICAL TAXIDEEMT. 



often, nay nearly always, represented, they have no fictitious 

 value given to them, but simply take their place in the great 

 scheme of !N'ature in a proper manner, being often close to 

 so-called " foreign " forms, with which they are easily compared. 

 The whole arrangement of accessories is " pictorial," birds being 

 represented on trees or on " rockwork," many of them swimming, 

 or flying, or eating, surrounded by mosses and the few dried 

 plants available for such purposes — in fact, represented in as 

 natural a manner as is possible under the circumstances. 

 Exception may be taken to the close contiguity of an American 

 or Indian form with an European, sometimes "British" form, 

 which, though scientifically correct, is artistically and topo- 

 graphically wrong ; and this certainly was a crux of mine until I 

 reflected that, under the old peg system, the same state of affairs 

 existed. I have endeavoured to isolate as much as possible such 

 incongruities one from the other, often by partially surrounding 

 them with ferns, &c., of their native habitat, and by leaving 

 little blanks here and there. Apart from this, the general 

 opinion of both scientific* and unscientific people is that the 

 scheme is a success, and that such trifling and inevitable irre- 

 concilements are amply condoned and compensated for by the 

 increased beauty of the groups, and by the pleasure it affords, 

 not only to artistic people, but to the general public ; indeed, if 

 vox 'poimli be vox Dei, there is no doubt upon the subject 

 whatever. Other defects there are ; for instance, repetitions of 

 grassesf in " fitting-up," which proves how little can be done 

 with di'ied things, and how much better it would be to replace 

 them by modelled foliage (mentioned at pp. 256-8). 



I would now wish to point out why I object so much to care- 

 fully-managed groups of so-called " local " birds, their nests and 

 eggs, being introduced in a general collection, especially if the 

 latter be arranged in a pictorial manner. First, because small 



* In this category I may place Sir Philip Cunliffe Owen, C.B., &c. ; Mr. E. Bowdler 

 Khai-pe, F.L.S., 6:c.; Mr. Smith Woodward, all of South Kensington; Sir J. A. Picton, 

 F.i?.A., ice, of Liverpool; Professor St. George Mivart, F.R.S., &c. ; Professor L. C, Miall ; 

 Professor Wm. Knight ; Professor A. Schuster, &c. ; 'Mx. Jas. Orrock, Member of the Royal 

 Institute of Water-colour Painters ; and several other gentlemen who have done me tha 

 honour to speak in most flattering terms of the new arrangement. 



t One would-be critic wrote to the papers condemning the whole arrangement, because, in 

 one of the cases, one plant was about a foot nearer the water or a yard nearer to another 

 lilant than it should be ! The same wiseacre, or his friend, wrote quite an article upon 

 •oaie suppo-ed "lir twigs," which, much to his confusion, were nothing of the sort, but a 

 piant quite proper to its place in the case. 



