166 Zoology. 



Rooms II., III. and IV. are devoted to the Sloanean and 

 Banksian collections of Plants, and to Sir William Smith's 

 collection of English Fossils, " arranged according to the strata 

 in which they were found." 



Rooms V., VI., VII. were occupied by Sir Joseph Banks' 

 Library, with some cabinets of Insects in Room VI. 



The Birds have been removed from Room VIII. to Room XII., 

 the place of the birds being taken by ethnological specimens. 



The Saloon is now occupied by the collection of Mammalia, in 

 which appears, as a curiosity, " a Mule-whelp between the Lion 

 and Tiger, born at Atkins' travelling menagerie at Windsor." 

 In Room IX. are stated to be portraits of Sir Hans Sloane, the 

 founder of the collection of Natural History, and an original 

 picture of John Rae, one of the earliest and most illustrious 

 of scientific British Naturalists. The latter is now in the 

 Natural History Museum. In the same room are deposited the 

 collections of Amphibious and Invertebrate Animals, preserved 

 in spirits, and the overflow of large Mammals from the Saloon. 

 The Batrachia and Crustacea, with other Invertebrata, were also 

 exhibited, many of them in spirits. 



Boom X. contained the collection of Reptiles in spirits, 

 Tortoises, Crocodiles, etc. A full description is given of these 

 collections (pp. 47-68). " In the Table Cases, in the centre of 

 the room, are arranged the Collection of Foreign Radiated 

 Animals." 



Boom XL is now dedicated to the general collection of Fish 

 and Crabs, and the table-cases contain the remainder of the 

 Radiated Animals. 



Boom XII. is now the home of the Bird collection, arranged 

 in glazed cases, with the collection of Shells in table-cases. 

 There are 42 cases for the Birds, instead of 22 as in 1826. 



The Royal collection of books having now been received, 

 there appears to have been a " Long Gallery " above the 

 " King's Library," and to this the collection of Minerals was 

 transferred. 



The series of native Birds, of which Dr. Leach had published 

 a catalogue in 1816, was chiefly composed of the Montagu 

 Collection, and even at the time when I succeeded George 

 Robert Gray, the British collection mainly consisted of the 

 Montagu series. 



Two years later the 28th edition of the " Synopsis " (1834) gives 

 evidence of continued progress in the natural history collections. 



