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BRITISH MUSEUM (nATUEAL HISTORY). 
TOPOGEAPHICAL DESCEIPTION OF THE MUSEUM 
AND ITS CONTENTS. 
In following this short account of the contents of the various 
sections of the building, the visitor must bear in mind that the 
principal front faces the south, and that therefore on entering 
the great hall he will be looking due north, with the east on 
his right, and the west on his left hand. 
It must also not be forgotten that a museum in a state of 
active growth is continually receiving additions as well as 
undergoing changes in the arrangement of its contents, and as 
these often occur faster than new editions of the guide can be 
produced, there may be variations in the position of some of 
the specimens from the descriptions here given. 
The Central Hall. 
Central HaiL The cases placed on the floor of the hall illustrate general 
laws or points of interest in Natural History which do not 
come appropriately within the systematic collections of the 
departmental series. 
Group of One group, in a case near the entrance to the hall, on the 
tratlng" ^^S^^' shows the great variation to which a species may become 
Variation subject under the influence of domestication, as illustrated by 
tication°"^*^" choice examples of the best marked breeds of Pigeons, all of 
which have been derived by careful selection from the wild 
Ptock Dove {Columha livia), specimens of which are shown at 
the top of the case. 
Oroups of In the corresponding case on the left are further illustrations 
Canaries^*^ of the same subject. A pair of the Common Jungle Eowl of 
illustrating India shows what is generally considered to be the original 
under^Domes- ^^""^^^ ^^om which all our various breeds of domestic fowls are 
tication. derived. As examples of two of the most extreme modifica- 
tions in opposite directions which have yet been produced by 
artificial selection, are tlie Japanese long-tailed fowls, in which 
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