< m ) 
deep interest in his or her particular bent 
or nobby. The arts, manufactures and agri- 
cultural implements of the present, the arms 
of an older and the archaeological remains 
of a still older, but perhaps less primitive 
day, bear witness to a history in peace and 
war not inferior to those of Greece and Rome. 
To those who are interested in exhibits 
showing modern local industries in their 
various branches there is scope for an hour 
or two of special study. 
THK NATURAL HISTORY SECTION. 
Leaving aside all these evidences of human 
development (or decadence) there is one kind 
of exhibit that never fails to interest the 
ordinary visitor. I allude to the Natural 
History section, for, although the "noblest 
study of mankind" may be man and his 
works of art, weapons of war and implements 
of peace, there is a sentiment which attracts 
even the most practical to this interesting 
section of all museums, even when it amounts 
to seeing animals stuffed, generally badly 
and in a stiff attitude, with the classical 
name a ttached ! 
The Natural History specimens in the 
, Colombo Museum, with the exception of the 
fishes, have up till lately been simply put 
in cases without any attempt at grouping. 
Now, a change has been made for the better. 
The present Director is a lover of animals 
in a live state, concerning which more anon, 
and his love for living animals has led him 
to try and show them as they are in a 
state of nature, with the result that already 
an improvement is perceptible in the Museum, 
and four separate groups of animals bear 
evidence to his artistic sense of the fitness 
of things. 
A JUNGLE TRAGEDY. 
Between the two stairs as one mounts to 
the upper floor a group of three animals 
shows a tragedy too coknmon in the jungle, 
a spotted deer attacked by a leopard, while 
her fawn stands petrified with fear beside 
her, This group is still unlinished. 
' • Opposite, in the centre of the hall, is a 
group of animals which to the casual visitor 
might seem startlingly crowded together, 
owing to the limited space available ; but to 
those who know the lowcountry jungles of 
Ceylon, it would be nothing extraordinary to 
see in the bed of a waterhole as many animals 
together in as small an area. 
Three elk, a boar, a crocodile and various 
birds common in the jungle, here represented, 
are so carefully and artistically placed and 
postured, that when your gaze, attracted 
first by the bigger animals, leaves them, it 
is with almost the pleasure of a first dis- 
coverer that you suddenly find bird after 
bird concealed and yet apparent. 
Branches of "Cockspur Thorn," tufts of 
the coarse grass peculiar to the dry district, 
and glass on the ground representing water, 
show that Dr. Willey is no mere collector 
of Natural History specimens; but that 
the scenes he has witnessed have been viewed 
with the eye of a true artist, lover of 
'animals and sportsman. 
The effect is enhanced by the fact that 
instead of being stufEed, the animals' 
shapes are moulded in cement to fit the 
skin, and all their natural curves most 
scrupulously adhered to. 
This means that there will be none of 
those lumps and hollows attendant on the 
shrinking of the skins, so conspicuous in 
ordinary and stuffed specimens as time 
goes on. 
TWO FINE GROUPS OF BIRDS. 
There are two more groups which have 
been set up under Dr. Willey's Director- 
ship, one of peafowl and one of birds of 
prey. Both are artistically mounted ; but it 
is not alone in his artistic grouping of 
dead animals that Dr. Willey shows his 
sentiments. 
He is not simply a scientific naturalist of 
world-wide repute ; but— what appeals to 
all of us in a greater or less degree — a lover 
of animals in the fiesh. 
THE NUCLEUS OF A ZOO, 
Scientist he may be ; but not of the sort 
described by Tennyson. Far from it. I had 
the privilege of inspecting in his company 
the animals he has collected in hopes of 
forming a nucleus for the proposed zoo, 
and it was pleasant to see the personal 
interest he took in all of them. 
From the two little panther cubs that for 
ten days he had himself brought up by hand 
and are now allowed to run about the museum 
grounds for a short period each day for 
exercise, to the stag hog-deer that had 
broken through its fencing of wire-netting 
and escaped, to be brought back safe three 
days later, he had interesting anecdotes of all. 
What he deplores in the Museum is the 
cramped space for his specimens ; but much 
more does he deplore his limitations in the 
housing of the live animals. 
The collection of these last, small as it 
is, has already borne a result interesting to 
science, as a hedgehog has been brought to 
Dr. Willey which he has been unable to 
identify with any described species. 
THE PROPOSED ZOO. 
The proposed zoo ought to be a great 
success for, as Mr Julius points out, Colombo 
is one of the most central ports of call for 
Australia, Asia and Africa, so that animals 
can be easily obtained and transported to 
any of these countries in exchange for theirs. 
That a zoo will be well patronised, there 
is not the slightest doubt, for, apart from 
the passenger .element always ready to see 
new sights, the native of all classes dearly 
loves to look at the animals of the wilds. 
It is all very well to know that Sir B 
Tennant, Kelaart, Jordan and others have 
written and described the animals of Ceylon. 
The passenger and the oi'dinary native 
have not these authors at their fingers' ends, 
and as a means of instruction there can be 
no more simple and pleasant way of acquir- 
ing knowledge of animals and birds than 
by a museum or, better still, a zoo. For 
the latter no better Committee could be 
appointed than the one proposed in the 
scheme which Mr Julius has kindly 
placed at the disposal of the public 
