84 Zoology, 



Mammals and Birds was that the public demanded to see all the 

 rare and unique specimens, and it is equally certain that some 

 donors made a great fuss if their specimens were not all exhibited. 

 The consequences were absurd. When I began to unmount the 

 historical specimens in the Bird-gallery, I found in one case 

 eleven specimens of an Eagle, all young birds in the same 

 plumage, and from the same country, mounted in a row, and 

 where one of the birds had lost a leg, the want was supplied 

 by a wire substitute. Not one of the eleven specimens gave 

 a proper idea of the bird in life. In those days there were 

 no explanatory labels, and the public wandered about the 

 galleries, fatigued with the sameness of the exhibitions provided, 

 from which they could learn nothing, nor was any attempt made 

 to teach them. My own experience, as a boy, was that, in the 

 bird-section at least, a student was an unwelcome visitor, and his 

 appearance on the scene resented. This was certainly my own 

 case, for I had always but a short time to spare, as it was seldom 

 that I could get leave of absence from the Zoological Society, even 

 for an hour. I therefore always took the precaution to write to 

 Mr. G. R. Gray two or three days beforehand, to ask him to 

 have the specimens ready for me to compare when I arrived, so 

 that the time of both of us might be saved. These precautions 

 were often useless ; the visitor was informed on arrival that there 

 was a Trustees' meeting to be prepared for, or some other function 

 intervening, to prevent the Curator from attending to the visitor, 

 who was then told to see what he could through the glass in 

 the gallery, the Curator arriving with the keys of the cases about 

 half an hour later. When one wanted to examine any unmounted 

 specimens, these were to be found in wooden boxes, a hundred or 

 more skins huddled together, so that it was often necessary, to 

 turn out the whole contents of the box on the table to search for 

 a particular specimen. In this way the plumage of the birds 

 was ruffled, the legs and wings torn off, and great injury to the 

 skins resulted. 



It was undoubtedly this want of management on the part of 

 the Museum Curators that led to the formation of the great 

 private collections in the nineteenth century. It was on these 

 that all the sound ornithological work of this country was based, 

 and no one cared to visit the British Museum, unless he were 

 forced to do so for the purpose of examining some special type 

 or historical specimen. 



After the publication of his very useful " Handlist of 



