42 
BRITISH VERTEBRATES. 
accurately modelled from nature. Great care has also been taken 
in preserving the natural form and characteristic attitudes of the 
Birds themselves. Among the more attractive cases are, near 
the 'centre of the gallery, a pair of Puffins, feeding their 
single young one, and Black-throated Divers, with their eggs 
in a hollow in the grass on the edge of a mountain-loch in 
Sutherland. Hen-harriers, the male grey and the female brown, 
with their nest among the heather from the moorland of the 
same county. On the left of this is a Peregrine Falcon's eyrie, 
on the ledge of a rocky cliff, containing three white downy nest- 
lings. Also various species of Ducks, especially the Eed-headed 
Pochard on the sedgy border of a Norfolk, mere. In the last 
bay but one on the right side is a nest of the Heron, in 
a fir-tree, with the two old and three nearly fledged young 
birds. Various species of Gulls and a particularly beautiful 
group of Arctic Terns from the Shetland Islands, are exhibited 
: in the middle line towards the west end of the gallery and in 
the eighth and ninth bays. In the eighth bay on the right side 
and in the adjoining passage are Plovers, Sandpipers, Snipes, 
&c., some of which (especially the Einged and Kentish 
Plovers) show the wonderful adaptation of the colouring of the 
eggs and young birds to their natural surroundings for the 
purpose of concealment. In the second passage leading to 
the Coral gallery are the Ptarmigan and Capercaillie from 
Scotland, and in the adjacent part of the middle line Wood- 
Pigeons and Turtle-Doves building their simple, flat nests 
of sticks in ivy-clad trees. In the fourth, sixth and seventh 
bays on the left are Sand-Martins and Kin^^ fishers, showing, 
by means of sections of the banks of sand or earth, the form 
and depth of the hole in which the eggs are placed ; and the 
nests of the Swift, Swallow, and House-Martin, all in portions 
of human habitations. 
Pavilion, with The " pavilion " at the west end of the Bird gallery is devoted 
and ^F^esh^*^ to the exhibition of the land and freshwater Yertebrated Animals 
water of the British Islands. The larger Mammals and Fishes occupy 
Vertebrates. ^]-^^ wall-case On the north side, which is surmounted with 
horns. In the two pairs of centre cases is exhibited the series 
of British Birds, which is supplemented by the groups already 
referred to. The wall-case on the north side of the archway 
