rture from the
conventional. Perhaps it is not desired that there should be, since long
experience seems to have settled fairly well the problem of greatest
economy of space, combined with best lighting facilities, which always
confronts the architect in founding a natural history museum.

There is, however, one striking novel feature in connection with the
structure of the natural history museum at Kensington which must not
be overlooked. This is the quite unprecedented use of terra-cotta
ornamentation. Without there is a striking display of half-decorative
and half-realistic forms; while within the walls and pillars everywhere
are covered with terracotta bas-reliefs representing the various forms
of life appropriate to the particular department of the museum which
they ornament. This very excellent feature might well be copied
elsewhere, and doubtless will be from time to time.

As to the exhibits proper within the museum, it may be stated in a word
that they cover the entire range of the faunas and floras of the
globe in a variety and abundance of specimens that are hardly excelled
anywhere, and only duplicated by one or two other collections in Europe
and two or three in America.

It would be but a reiteration of what the catalogues of all large
collections exhibit were one to enumerate the various forms here shown,
but there are two or three exhibits in this museum which are more novel
and which deserve special mention. One of these is to be found in a set
of cases in the main central hall. Here are exhibited, in a delightfully
popular form, some of the lessons that the evolutionist has taught us
during the last half-century. Appropriately enough, a fine marble statue
of Darwin, whose work is the fountain-head of all these lessons, is
placed on the stairway just beyond, as if to view with approval this
beautiful exemplification of his work.

One of these cases illustrates the variations of animals under
domestication, the particular specimens selected being chiefly the
familiar pigeon, in its various forms, and the jungle-fowl with its
multiform domesticated descendants.

Another case illustrates very strikingly the subject of protective
coloration of animals. Two companion cases are shown, each occupied by
specimens of the same species of birds and animals--in one case in their
summer plumage and pelage and in the other clad in the garb of winter.
The surroundings in the case have, of course, been carefully p