ZOOLOGICAL MUSEUM, TRING. 
49 
Assam. There is also to be seen on the staircase the 
cast of the Archaeopteryx, the oldest bird-remains 
as yet known, belonging to an animal very different 
from the birds of our days. On the top of the stair- 
case we see an octagonal glass case, with a magnificent 
collection of 
Humming Birds (Trochilidae). 
This collection was entirely formed by Mr. 0. T. 
Baron, a railway engineer, who, during his travels 
in Mexico and California, and afterwards in Ecuador, 
shot and mounted these pretty birds on the spot, thus 
producing real works of art, by mounting them in 
the position in which they were seen by the observer, 
standing in contrast to all formerly mounted collec- 
tions of Humming Birds, which were mostly mounted 
from dry skins and without the slightest idea of 
their real positions on the part of the taxidermist. 
Another collection was afterwards formed by Mr. 
Baron in the Andes of Peru, where he made a 
special collecting tour, during which he discovered 
many new species. 
The Humming Birds have always attracted a 
good deal of attention, on account of their exceed- 
ing beauty, but nobody has, in our opinion, ever 
done such successful field-work in this group as 
Mr. Baron. It is, however, not only the beautiful 
plumage that makes the Trochilidae interesting, but 
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