336 PBACTICAL TAXIDEEMY. 



was destructive to tlie effect souglit to "be gained; tHat yellow 

 is not distinct from white by gaslight ; and tliat pmlc often fades 

 to yellow; also that to colour-blind people these labels would 

 have no significance whatever. In addition, I submitted that 

 there are educated people as well as people of the other class, 

 and that the system of labels written with common names 

 inside the cases is not only unscientific but ugly in the extreme, 

 for these reasons — that there are many birds whose " English " 

 names are just as puzzling as their scientific to the uneducated ; 

 whereas, for those who care to learn, the scientific name is 

 a factor of knowledge. Regarding their inexpedience and 

 ugliness, such a word as the "Lesser -spotted -Woodpecker," 

 with the marking underneath it of " Hesident," would fill up 

 a large label if it were to be read at any height or distance. 

 Taking it as a whole, the proposition was behind the age, and 

 was commonplace also. 



To dispense altogether with the necessity for labels, I proposed 

 that a chart might be made for every group — a picture, in fact, 

 of the contents of each case, every bird numbered, and a list 

 prepared, whose corresponding number would give the whole 

 history of each specimen ; but, in any case, the adoption of a 

 mass of printed matter clumsily introduced amidst pictorial 

 effects must be condemned. 



That all this was practicable is now proved by the present 

 state of the Leicester Museum, provisionally* finished in its 

 general zoological collections so far as the birds and fishes are 

 concerned. 



The reference to species in the general collection is now 

 managed as I proposed. (See list, on p. 337, of part of the 

 Order Anseres, printed on sage-green cards.) This is, I contend, 

 a great advance on the old system of labelling, which has 

 this defect, that the labels, even if small, are "spotty" and 

 obtrusive near the eye, and if placed lOft. from the floor, as 

 they must be in many instances, it is impossible to read 

 themf unless both label and type be very large, which is an 



* That is to say, that many of the ill-mounted and old specimens will ultimately be 

 replaced by better ones of the same species, and that some modelled foliage will take the 

 place of many of the dried grasses, rushes, &c., which are not quite truthfully arranged. 



t When I frst came to Leicester the birds, mount ed on stands and perches 9ft. from the 

 floor, were labelled by slips of yellow paper pasted on the stands, the type being that known 

 as Pica and Boui'geois ! 



