GROUND FLOOK. 
41 
possible, the actual rocks, trees or grass, have been preserved, 
and where these were of a perishable nature they were accurately 
modelled from nature. Far more care has also been taken in 
preserving the natural form and characteristic attitude of the 
birds than was formerly the case in museums, as a large 
number of the old specimens in the wall-cases unhappily 
testify. This beautiful and instructive series is still in process of 
formation. Among the most attractive cases are, near to the 
entrance to the gallery, on the right, 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. A Peregrine Palcon's nest, on the ledge of a 
rocky cliff, containing three white downy nestlings. Various 
species of Ducks, especially the Eed-headed Pochard, on the 
sedgy border of a l^orfolk mere. This is in the sixth recess 
on the left side. 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 the graceful 
Arctic Terns from the Shetland Islands, in the seventh recess 
on the right. Then follow 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. Beyond are Ptarmigans and Capercailzies 
from Scotland, and on the left Woodpigeons and Turtle 
Doves building their simple, flat nests of sticks in ivy-clad 
trees. In the Pavilion at the end are Sandmartins and King- 
fishers, showing, by means of sections of the banks of sand or 
earth, the form and depth of the hole in which the nests are 
placed ; and the nests of the Swift, Barn Swallow, and House 
Martin, all in portions of human habitations. There is here 
also (on the right) a fine group of Gannets and other sea- 
birds from the Bass Ptock in the Pirth of Fortli. On the 
pposite side of the Pavilion have recently been added two 
mportant groups, with the accessories true to nature, of the 
Golden Eagle and Common Buzzard, from Scotland. 
Owing to want of space in this gallery, the series of 
