34 
WEST WING. 
Statue of 
Banks. 
Gould 
Collection of 
Hununing- 
Birds. 
or uppermost floor. On the landing at the top of this flight 
is placed a marble statue by Chantrej of Sir Joseph Banks 
(b. 1743, d. 1820), the munificent patron of science and scientific 
men, who for forty-one years presided over the Eoyal Society, and 
was an active Trustee of the Museum. His splendid botanical 
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 series of British 
birds with their nests (see the following page), for which there 
is not room in the Bird Gallery on the ground floor. The 
specimens placed here belong to the smaller kinds, being mostly 
of the Perching or Passerine order. 
In the east corridor is placed at present the collection of 
Humming-birds {Trocliilidce) arranged and mounted by the late 
Mr. John Gould, and purchased for the Museum after his death 
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. A special 
guide-book, pointing out the most interesting features of this 
collection, with a general account of the geographical distribu- 
tion and mode of life of the humming-birds, has been published 
by the Trustees.* 
WEST WING. 
The whole of the west wing of the building is devoted to the 
collections of recent Zoology. 
(A) Ground Floor, 
Bird Gallery. The ground floor is entered from the west side (left hand) of 
the Central Hall, near the main entrance of the building. ; The 
long gallery extending the entire length of the front of the 
* * A Guide to the Gould Collection of Humming-birds.' Price twopence. 
