Birds. 167 



Beside the Giraffes on the first landing was now a River 1 1 

 or Hippopotamus, from South Africa. The contents of I In- 

 various rooms were much as before, but Room XII. is given over 

 to the British Collection of Birds and their eggs, shells, etc. 

 The general series of Birds is exhibited in Room XIII. 



No striking alteration in arrangement of the Birds La shown 

 in any of the following: 29th edition (1835), 31st (1836), 

 33rd (1837), 36th (1838), 38th (1839). In 1840, however, when 

 Sir Henry Ellis was Principal Librarian, and Dr. John Edward 

 Gray was Keeper, considerable changes have been made. The 

 42nd edition of the " Synopsis " is now a bulky little volume of 

 370 pages, and the descriptions of all the collections are much 

 enlarged, and we find the names of Darwin, Riippell, Burchell, 

 and other well-known explorers, whose collections have con- 

 tributed to the increase of the series. The Saloon contained the 

 Mammalia, both the mounted specimens as well as those in 

 spirit being in " upright glazed cases round the room, the 

 smaller in those between the windows, and the Bats in shallow 

 cases affixed to the others." Shells, Corals, Insects, and Crustacea 

 were " arranged in a series in the table-cases of the several 

 rooms." 



Room IX. had additional stuffed Mammalia, as well as 

 spirit-specimens, Reptilia, Mollusca, etc., and in Room X. was 

 the collection of Reptilia in spirits, with a full account of them, 

 and a table of their classification, doubtless the work of 

 Dr. J. E. Gray himself. The mounted collection of Fish, as 

 well as the specimens in spirits, occupied Room XI. 



The " Northern Zoological Gallery" had apparently not long 

 been finished, as Sir Henry Ellis, in his introduction, describes 

 the additional buildings and galleries gradually ordered by the 

 Government for the large collections as they were purchased or 

 presented. In 1823, on ''the donation, of His Majesty Kin- 

 George IV., of the library collected by King George III., the 

 Government ordered drawings to be prepared for the erection of 

 an entire new Museum, a portion of one wing of which was to be 

 occupied by the recently acquired library. This wing, on the 

 eastern side of the then Museum Garden, was finished in L828 ; 

 and the northern, and a part of the western compartment of a 

 projected square, have since been completed. The Tow nlev 

 Gallery at present joins on to the centre of the western 

 compartment; and Montague House, the old building of the 

 Museum, continues to form the general front." 



