How to See the British Museum in Four Visits | Page 4

The way lies between two rows of animals. Of these the visitor should notice particularly the wild oxen of India and Java; compare the Indian rhinoceros with that of South Africa; and notice the hippopotamus family, from South Africa, as well as a diminutive specimen of the Indian elephant, and a half-grown elephant, from Africa. Having noticed these ponderous creatures, the attention of the visitor will be next attracted to the Llamas, which are arranged in the first two wall-cases. Of these, the wild are generally brown, and the tame of mixed colours. The next fourteen wall-cases are filled with specimens of the different species of Oxen and the Elephant tribe. Among the former the visitor should notice the white bulls of Scotland and Poland: the splendid Lithuanian bison, with his shaggy throat, a present from the Russian Emperor; the bison of the American prairies; and the elando. The specimens of the elephant tribe, ranged in the upper compartments of these cases, include the tapir of South America; the tennu, from Sumatra; the European boar, with its young; the Brazilian peccari: and other curious animals. Here, too, are specimens of the Armadillo tribe. The attention of the visitor will, however, be soon riveted upon an animal which, with the beak of a duck and the claws of a bird, has the body of an otter. In Australia (its native country) this singular animal is commonly called a water mole, but to scientific men it is known as the mullingong; it is placed in the same order with its neighbour, the spring-ant or echidra, also a native of Australia. Before leaving these cases, the visitor should pause to notice the Sloths, and particularly the repulsive aspect of the yellow-faced sloth of South America.
The visitor should now pass to the cases marked from 17 to 30. These are devoted to the Horse tribe and Deer. Here the reindeer from Hudson's Bay, the red fallow deer of Europe, the elk, and the cheetul of India, will catch the eye immediately. The beautiful South African zebra is here also, grouped near the Asiatic wild ass, and the Zoological Society's hybrids of the zebra, wild ass, and common donkey. The upper shelves of the cases are devoted, as usual, to the smaller specimens of the tribe below. Here are the European roebuck, the West African water musk, the Javan musk, the white-bellied and golden-eyed musk. Having examined these zoological specimens, the visitor should proceed on his way east to
THE MAMMALIA SALOON.
This saloon is one of the most interesting parts of the exhibition to the general visitor, as he sees here at a glance the various classes of the highest order of the animal creation, all grouped after their kinds, and in that gradation of development which nature has assigned them. Those specimens which are placed on the floor in the central space of the room include some large varieties of the Bears, and a few small specimens of Seals, including the young of the harp seal, with the white fur, which clothes them on their first appearance in the world, and the young of the Cape of Good Hope eared seal; but these isolated specimens should not engage the attention of the visitor before he has followed the systematic arrangement or classification adopted with regard to the animals deposited in the wall-cases that line the saloon. The first series or family of animals to which, according to Cuvier, his particular attention should be attracted are
THE MONKEYS,
ranged in the first eleven wall-cases. These cases contain the species of monkeys found in the Old World. The varieties in colour, shape, size, and attitude, are endless. Here are the green monkeys from Western Africa; the white-throated monkey from India; the bearded monkey, with a republican air about him; and the monkey who appears to have had his ears pulled, but is in reality known to scientific men as the red-eared monkey; both from Fernando Po: the Risley of monkeys, called the vaulting monkey, with his white nose; and the talapoin, from Western Africa; the gaudy macaque, known as the brilliant from Japan; that dingy gentleman, the sooty mangabey, from Africa: the African chimpanzee (to whom satirical gentlemen with a turn for zoological comparisons, are greatly indebted); the ourang-outan, with his young, from Borneo; the presbytes, dusky and starred, from Singapore, Malacca, and Borneo; and the drill and mandrill, from Africa. The Monkeys of the New World are grouped in six cases (12-18). Herein the visitor should particularly notice the curious spider monkeys, from Brazil and Bolivia: the negro monkey; the apes, with large eyes, like those of the owl, called night apes; the howlers, so called from the incessant howling they maintain at night in their native forests; the quaint marmozettes and handsome silky monkeys; and the Jew