EASTERN ZOOLOGICAL GALLERY.

The Wall Cases contain the general collection of BIRDS; the larger Table Cases contain the collection of SHELLS of Molluscous animals; on the top of the Wall Cases is a series of horns of different kinds of Deer and Rhinoceros.

The Wall Cases on the west side of the room, or to the left on entering from the Mammalia Saloon, contain (1-26) the diurnal and nocturnal Birds of Prey. Cases 27-64 contain the Perching Birds; Cases 65-77, the climbing or Scansorial Birds; Cases 78-83, the Pigeons.

On the east side of the room, Cases 84-106 contain the Gallinaceous Birds; Cases 107-134, the Wading Birds; and Cases 135–166 the Web-footed Birds.

Cases 1-26. Diurnal Birds of Prey. Some of the most interesting species are, the Condor, or Great Vulture of the Andes, which soars higher than any other bird; the Turkey Buzzards, or Carrion Vultures, which clear away putrifying carcases, and are the most useful scavengers in the warmer parts of America; the Eagles, the most formidable of which are the Læmmergeier and the Wedge-tailed Eagle of Australia; the Kites; the true Falcons, which are the most courageous, in proportion to their size, of all the Birds of Prey, and some of which are used in Falconry; the Secretary Bird of South Africa, with its long legs, which kills venomous snakes, and, therefore, is strictly preserved in the British Colonies; it derives its name from the plumes, like pens, on the side of the head. These obtain their food during the day.

Of the nocturnal Birds of Prey, may be noticed the great Eagle Owl; the Snowy Owl of North Europe and America; the Fishing Owls, with their bare legs. The Owls, with a few exceptions, hunt for their prey by night, being most useful by destroying a great number of noxious animals, rats, mice, &c. Their soft plumage renders their flight almost noiseless.

In

Cases 27-77. The Perching Birds. Cases 27, 28. The Crows, Jays, and Magpies. The gorgeous Birds of Paradise from New Guinea and the adjoining islands, where their skins and plumes form a regular article of a lucrative trade; selections of the finest specimens have separate glass cases allotted to them. The Yellow and Black Orioles, of which one Continental species is a rare visitor to the south of England. Case 29 contains the Drongos or King Crows and the Wood-Shrikes. Cases 30, 31, are the Caterpillar-catchers or Cuckoo-Shrikes, so called from the similarity exhibited by some of them to the plumage of a Cuckoo; and the Flycatchers, one of the most elegant of which is the Paradise Flycatcher of India, with its long drooping white tail. Case 32. Shrikes or Butcher-birds, the latter name derived from their habit of impaling insects and small birds on thorns. Cases 33-35 contain the Thrushes, generally small birds of sombre coloration, but

possessing great powers of song, which is not the case with many of the brighter plumaged kinds of the same family inhabiting the tropics. Of the wide-gaped section of Perching Birds, Cases 36-38, may be specified the Goatsuckers, which fly about at night, and live on moths and beetles; the Trinidad Goatsucker, or Oil-bird, is found in caves in South America, and considered a delicacy. The Leona Goatsucker of West Africa, with very long feathers appended to its wings, so that, when flying, it looks like a bird with four wings. Case 39. The Todies, Rollers, Broadbills, and Motmots, living chiefly on insects and fruits; the plumage of many of these is very showy. Case 40. The Trogons, living in low damp woods in the tropics, particularly of the New World; one of the most conspicuous is the long-feathered Quezal, a sacred bird of the ancient Peruvians. Cases 41, 42. The Kingfishers, mostly large-billed birds with short tails, living on fish, insects, and other small animals, are of bright plumage. One of the largest is the Laughing Kingfisher of Australia, which lives on snakes and reptiles; the colonists call it the Jackass, from its loud and singular note. Case 43. The Swallows and Swifts, which pursue flies on the wing; their wings and tail are very long, their legs very short. The Esculent Swallow constructs its nest of a substance which when dissolved in soups is esteemed a great luxury in China and elsewhere in the East. The same case contains the Hoopoes and Sunbirds of Africa and Asia; the latter have brilliant metallic plumage, and have often beed taken for Humming-birds; they feed on the nectar of flowers ann on insects which they find in the tubes of flowers. Case 44 contains the true Humming-birds, peculiar to America. Among the finest may be mentioned the topaz, garnet-throated, tufted-necked and racquettailed Humming-birds. The beak in some of the species is of enormous length; in most it is straight or bent down, in a few it is turned up. Their food consists of minute insects and the honey of flowers. They fly with a humming noise, and never settle on the ground. Case 45. The Honey-eaters, peculiar to Australia and New Zealand. They have curiously-feathered tongues, which assist them in sipping their food. Cases 46, 47. The Creepers, Nuthatches, and Wrens, most of which can creep up and down trees, their long hind claws taking a firm grasp of any inequality in the bark. The Nuthatches have great strength in the beak, in this respect resembling Woodpeckers, and, like them, tapping on trees.

Cases 48-52. Warblers and Tit-Mice, feeding chiefly on insects and grubs. Case 48. The Tailor-birds, forming curious nests of leaves, which they stitch together; the Emu Wren of Australia, and the Lyre-bird or Menura of Australia. Case 49. The Warblers, birds of plain plumage, but famed for their agreeable song; the Blackcap and Nightingale are placed here. Cases 50, 51. The Wheatears and Titmice; the latter are very active in flitting from branch to branch and suspending themselves in all kinds of attitudes whilst seeking for insects. Case 52. The American Wood Warblers; the Pipits and Wagtails.

Case 53. The Ant-Thrushes: some of these have long legs and

short tails; they are inhabitants of the tropics of the Old World ; many have brilliant plumage. Cases 54, 55. The Chatterers: many of these are of beautiful plumage and feed on berries and insects; remarkable among them is the white Chatterer of the American forests, called the Campanero, or Bell-bird, from its note resembling the convent bell. Case 56. The Tyrant-Flycatchers of North and South America pursue and catch small birds as well as insects. One of the most curious is the King Tody of South America, with a finely coloured and peculiar radiated crest on its head. Case 57. American Bush-Shrikes. Case 58. The metallic-plumed Glossy Starlings; the Bower Birds of Australia; they form a bower of twigs, which they adorn with feathers and strew with bones and stones, using it as a place to play in. The Oxpeckers of Africa with their strong beaks pick grubs out of the skin of oxen and other beasts. Cases 59, 60. Starlings and Hang-Nests. The latter birds are found only in America, and derive their name from the wonderful purse-like nests which they build. This peculiarity is shared by the Weavers of Africa and Asia (Cases 60, 61), so named from the elegant nests they weave with dried grasses: some of these live in great colonies with the nests under one great cover. Cases 61, 62. The Tanagers of the New World, remarkable for the gay plumage of the males. Cases 63, 64. The Finches and Buntings, living chiefly on seeds; the Larks, with the hind claw long and straight; the Crossbills, with the points of the beak crossing each other and giving them great power in tearing pine-cones to pieces to get at the seeds.

Cases 65-77. The Scansorial Birds, powerful graspers from the arrangement of the toes, two before and two behind. Cases 65-67. The Barbets and Woodpeckers, the latter distinguished by their wedgeshaped beaks and bristly-pointed tails; they live on insects and larvæ, which they extract from trees, by pecking holes with their strong chisellike beaks, and then inserting their long extensile tongues. The species are most numerous in America and Asia. Cases 68-70. The Cuckoos. Many of these deposit their eggs in the nests of other birds, which sit upon them and rear the young; the Honey-guides of South Africa are so called from guiding the natives to the nests of wild bees; the Golden Cuckoos of South Africa have brilliant metallic green and purple plumage; the Anis are black birds, found in South America and the West Indies. They are very fond of warmth, and live on insects. Case 71. The Colies of Africa and India, which sleep in companies, suspended by one foot; the African Plantain-eaters. Cases 72, 73. The Hornbills, with their enormous beaks: the females when incubating are imprisoned in the nest (which is placed in the hollow of a tree) and fed by the male. Cases 73-76. The Parrets: The long-tailed Brazilian Macaws with naked cheeks; the Australian Parakeets; the Cockatoos; the New Zealand Strigops having the aspect of an owl; and the red and blue Lories of the Indian Archipelago. Case 77. The Toucans of the New World, with large beaks; one of the most curious is the curl-crested species.

Cases 78-83 contain the Pigeons; the most conspicuous of these

are-the Victoria and great Crowned Pigeons of the East Indian Islands; the Nutmeg Pigeons, feeding on aromatic fruits; the Didunculus, from the Navigator Islands, once exposed to the danger of extermination by the introduction of the cat into those islands; the Bronze-winged Pigeons of Australia. Unlike the Gallinaceæ, the Pigeons when hatched are bare, and require to be fed by their parents. On the table cases opposite these, in glass cases, are the showy Fruit-eating Pigeons from New Guinea and the South Sea Islands. Cases 89, 90. The Curassows of South America, some of them with curious crests and knobs on their beak.

Cases 91-93. The Peacocks and Argus Pheasants of Asia and its islands; the rare Crossoptilon from Thibet, and the many-spurred Polyplectrons, with their fine eye-like spots. Cases 94-100. The Pheasants, Wild Fowls, and Turkeys: the Monaul, or Impeyan Pheasants, found on the high mountains of India, where they live on bulbous roots, which they dig up with their large beaks. The whitetailed Pheasant of Borneo, recently discovered by Sir E. Bulwer; the Lady Amherst's Pheasant from Thibet, and the long-tailed Reeves's Pheasant from China. A separate Glass-Case contains a remarkable cross between the Golden and Lady Amherst's Pheasants, more gorgeous in color than either of the parents. The Wild Fowls, which are inhabitants of the Asiatic jungles and woods; the Fire-backed Pheasant, and the Horned Pheasants of North India, with their fine painted faces. Turkeys and Guinea-fowl; the most conspicuous of which is the Ocellated Turkey of Honduras and Vulturine Pintado. Cases 101, 102. The Partridges and Quails; some of the American species have been acclimatized in England; they subsist on seeds chiefly. Cases 85-87. The Grouse: some inhabiting snowy regions, change their plumage in winter to snow-white. The Sandgrouse, with their sandy-colored plumage, inhabit the deserts of the Old World. One species, the Syrrhaptes paradoxus, an inhabitant of Central Asia, has suddenly appeared in large numbers in Europe, and several small flocks have reached England, where they have been observed for three consecutive years. Case 88. Sheathbills and Tinamous of the New World. The Megapodius group, including the Brush Turkey of Australia, make large mounds of decaying vegetable substances, in which the eggs are deposited, and are hatched by the heat of the fermenting mass.

Cases 103-109. The Ostrich, Emeus, and Cassowaries, the largest of recent birds, incapable of flight, but noted for their powers of running. In Case 107 'are specimens of the Apteryx, wingless birds of New Zealand, sleeping during the day, and feeding at night on worms and insects. Cast of the egg of the Epyornis maximus, a fossil gigantic bird, from Madagascar. Opposite the upright case 108, are placed three glass cases containing skeletons and other remains of three birds which, incapable of flight, formerly were found in abundance in certain uninhabited islands, but which became extinct soon after their home had been discovered and invaded by man. The most celebrated is the Dodo from Mauritius, a gigantic pigeon with its

skeleton are exhibited a foot, belonging to a specimen which was formerly contained in Tradescant's Museum at Lambeth, and also various models of head, skulls, and bones of the foot. An oilpainting of this remarkable bird is hung in the wall-case 108, which is said to have been made from a living bird, brought from the Mauritius. The selection of bones of the Dodo, shown in a small case on the right side of the skeleton, as well as the skeleton, were obtained from a turbary in the island mentioned. The two skeletons in the case on the right side of the Dodo represent a male and female of the Solitaire (Pezophaps solitarius) from Rodriguez, a small island situated about three hundred miles to the east of Mauritius. Like the Dodo, the Solitaire was a flightless pigeon, but less bulky, and of a more slender build. Although the wings were too weak and quite useless for the purpose of flight, they were armed at the wrist joint with a large bony excrescence (at least in the male), and these birds appear to have used them in their combats very much in the same manner as our common pigeons. The skeletons were discovered by one of the naturalists accompanying the Transit of Venus Expedition in 1874, and presented by the Royal Society of London.

The case on the left side of the Dodo contains the remains of a gigantic flightless Goose from New Zealand (Cnemiornis calcitrans). Like the pigeons of the Mascarenes, it became extinct within a very recent period.

Cases 110, 111, 112. The Bustards and Coursers, quick running birds, inhabitants of the barren parts of Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia, where they feed on grain, herbage, worms, and insects. Cases 113-134. The Wading Birds, generally provided with long legs. Cases 113, 114. The Plovers, Turnstones, and Oyster-catchers; the last are so named because they are said to open bivalve shells with their bills, to feed on the contents. Case 114. The Trumpeters of South America; one of these is employed to guard poultry from the attacks of hawks. Cases 115-117. The Cranes found on the borders of rivers and marshes, feeding on insects and seeds; the fine-crested Egrets, with their delicate white plumes; the Bitterns and Night-Herons; the wide-beaked Boatbill and Spoonbills; the Demoiselles, so named from their graceful and elegant motions. Facing Wall Case 134, a small Case is placed, containing a group of Knots (Tringa canutus) with their young. This bird is a kind of Sandpiper, distributed in the winter season over the greater part of the Old World, and common during the autumn migration on the south coast of England. Its breeding-home has been discovered quite recently during the Arctic Exhibition, when the specimens here exhibited were procured (4th of June, 1876). Cases 124, 125. The Storks and Ibises; the Ethiopian Ibis, the mummies of which were preserved by the ancient Egyptians; the Baloniceps of the Upper Nila which is enabled by its powerful beak to feed on hard-scaled fishes and tortoises. Cases 127-129. The Godwits, Sandpipers, and Phalaropes; the Avocets, with their very long legs, and upturned or recurved bills; the long-legged Plover, which seems to walk on stilts.