86 
THE INDIAN MUSEUM: 1814—1914. 
The casts were mostly prepared in the Trivandrum Museum 
and are replicas of those now exhibited in the Whale Gallery 
of the British Museum. The other central case contains the 
largest known specimen of the Dugong (stuffed), from the 
Gulf of Manaar, with a skeleton, photographs and drawings 
of the animal. In a case at one end of the gallery there are 
stuffed seals and a walrus, while the corresponding case at 
the other end is occupied by a series of skeletons illustrating 
resemblances and differences between man and the higher 
apes. 
This last exhibit replaces a spectacular group represent¬ 
ing a fight between a lion and a tiger, mounted in quasi- 
realistic style with plenty of red-sealing wax blood. Some 
eighteen years ago this triumph of the taxidermist’s art 
became dilapidated and was removed. But its fame had 
gone abroad and survived its destruction beyond the confines 
of India; for when the Dalai Lama visited the Museum in 
1910 one of the first things that his attendants asked to be 
shown was the lion and the tiger fighting, of which they had 
heard at Lhassa. 
A large collection of horns and antlers, chiefly of Indian 
ruminants, is hung on the walls above the cases. 
The birds now share with the reptiles and batrachians 
a large gallery at right angles to and rather smaller than that 
of the large mammals. What has been said of these is also 
true of the birds. Indeed, it has seemed advisable to reduce 
the whole exhibit considerably until new cases can be pro¬ 
vided, and the only family now in any way adequately repre¬ 
sented is that of the ducks, to which Mr. Frank Finn while 
Deputy Superintendent devoted special attention. 
The research collection of bird-skins and of eggs and 
nests is kept in cabinets supported on a hanging gallery along 
the walls above the show-cases and is naturally in very 
much better condition than the duplicates displayed, at any 
rate so far as the skins are concerned. 
Half of the floor-space of the gallery is devoted to 
birds, the structure, eggs and bionomics of which are illus¬ 
trated in cases occupying the centre of the room. The rep¬ 
tiles and batrachians occupy the other half, together with a 
