GROUND FLOOR. 
39 
collections are preserved in the adjoining gallery, but his 
unrivalled library of works on natural history, also bequeathed to 
the Museum, remains in the old building at Bloomsbury, in the 
entrance hall of which the statue, erected by public subscription 
in 1826, stood, until it was removed to its present situation by 
direction of the Trustees in the year 1886. 
The west corridor contains a portion of the collection of African 
mounted mammals for which there is not room in the gallery -^^^^^^P®^- 
immediately adjoining. The specimens placed here are selected 
examples of the finest African antelopes, animals remarkable 
for their beauty, for their former countless numbers, and for 
their threatened extinction in consequence of the inroads of 
civilized man into their domain. 
In the east corridor is placed at present the collection of Gould 
Humming-birds (Trochilidce) arranged and mounted by the late Humming- 
Mr. John Gould, and purchased for the Museum after his death Birds, 
in 1881. The resplendent colours and singular varieties of form 
presented by these fairy-like objects must always excite feelings 
of admiration and wonder in all who gaze upon them. 
WEST wma. 
The whole of the west wing of the building is devoted to the 
collections of recent Zoology. 
(A) Ground Floor. 
The ground floor is entered from the west side (left hand) of Bird Gallery, 
the Central Hall, near the main entrance of the building. The 
long gallery extending the entire length of the front of the wing 
is assigned to the exhibited collection of birds, the study series 
of the same group being kept in cabinets in a room behind. 
The wall-cases contain mounted specimens of all the principal Systematic 
species placed in systematic order, beginning with the Vultures, ^^iTcases 
on the left hand on entering, and ending with the Penguins on 
the right. A complete rearrangement of this series has been 
commenced. Certain groups, as the Humming Birds {Troclii- 
lidxjc) and the "Woodpeckers (Picidcc), both on the left side of the 
gallery, have been remodelled, and the rest will follow on the 
same lines in due course. 
