274 Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. [Sess. 
dredging and collecting expeditions, or by securing from friends such rare 
forms, for example, as Leptocephali. 
In connection with the fittings of the National Collection at South 
Kensington, it is also interesting to remember that he favoured the con- 
struction of metal cases instead of wood, though the Government did not 
adopt this plan — probably on the score of expense. He was indeed one of 
the earliest in this country to show the advantages of such cases now fitted 
up in the most advanced museums. Further, from an early period of his 
career in the Museum he saw the importance of having a reference library in 
addition to a general library in connection with the Zoological Department, 
and he persistently exerted himself to carry out this aim. The severance 
of the collections from the proximity of the great library in Bloomsbury 
made this the more necessary, and now the New National History Museum 
has an important and invaluable general as well as a special zoological 
library — an inestimable boon to visiting naturalists as well as to the staff. 
Yet another side of Dr Gunther’s services in the British Museum merits 
attention, viz. the development of the systematic work in the Museum. 
Thus he succeeded in increasing the scientific staff gradually from 4 to 13, 
and by a skilful modification of the duties of the attendants he managed 
to relieve the trained men from menial duties and enlist their services 
in highly skilled museum-work. Thus the scientific staff had at their 
disposal a body of experienced and reliable practical aids, so that their 
progress was rendered both rapid and satisfactory. 
His services as a Vice-President of the Royal and Zoological Societies, 
and President of the Linnean Society, must have entailed a large absorp- 
tion of his time and energies — especially as many of his memoirs and 
papers were communicated to one or other. 
It might be supposed that one so constantly and so actively engaged 
in the pursuit of science had little time for attending to the interests of 
visitors to the collection. Yet, if he had done nothing more than in- 
augurated the fascinating and instructive cases containing the nesting 
of birds as now exhibited in the Museum, such would have been memor- 
able. No feature in the great collection is more popular than these life- 
like illustrations of the British nesting birds of both sexes, their eggs, 
newly hatched young, and their environment. As he himself has stated, 
it was essential that the actual birds which made the nest, with their 
eggs or young, should be secured, and the surroundings taken from the 
spot, the only artificial elements being flowers, leaves, or structures which 
could not be preserved satisfactorily. In the case of such birds as the 
bustard and the ruff, the remarkable plumage and attitudes of the males 
