On entering the hall the visitor will notice the bronze statue of the late Sir Richard Owen, K.C.B., Superintendent of the Natural History Departments of the British Museum (1856–1884). It is the work of Mr. T. Brock, R.A., and was placed in the Museum on March 17th, 1897. To the right of this is a marble statue of the late Professor T. H. Huxley, sculptured by Mr. E. Onslow Ford, R.A., which was unveiled on April 28th, 1900. In the first bay on the left is a bust, by Mr. Brock, of the late Sir W. H. Flower, Director of the Natural History Departments of the British Museum from 1884 to 1898. Most of the cases placed on the floor of the hall illustrate general laws or points of interest in natural history which do not come appropriately for illustration within the systematic collections of the departmental series. [Sidenote: Pigeons illustrating Variation under Domestication.] One group, in a case near the entrance to the hall, on the right, shows the great variation to which a species may become subject under the influence of domestication, as illustrated by examples of the best-marked breeds of Pigeons, all derived by selection from the wild Rock-Dove (_Columba livia_), specimens of which are shown at the top of the case. [Sidenote: Fowls and Canaries illustrating Variation under Domestication.] In the corresponding case on the left are further illustrations of the same subject. A pair of red Jungle Fowl (_Gallus bankiva_, or _G. ferrugineus_) of India represents the species from which the breeds of Domesticated Fowls are generally considered to have been derived. As examples of extreme modifications in opposite directions produced by selection, are exhibited the Japanese Long-tailed Fowls, in which some of the feathers (tail-coverts) attain a length of nine feet, and specimens of a breed in which the tail is absent. There is also shown a group of Fowls living wild in the woods of the Fiji Islands, which are descendants from domesticated birds introduced in the eighteenth century. A pair of Cochin Fowls is exhibited in the same case to display development in point of size and in the abundance of feathers on the limbs; while a pair of white “Silkies” illustrates a modification of the plumage, accompanied by a rudimentary condition of the tail-feathers. The pair of Coloured Dorkings exemplifies a breed cultivated in England. A series of Canaries is shown in a case in the archway leading from the east side of the central hall to the north hall, as an example of a late addition to domesticated animals, these birds having been first imported into Europe from the Canary Islands in the early part of the sixteenth century. Specimens are exhibited of the wild birds, and of some of the modifications produced by selection. [Sidenote: Ruffs and Reeves, illustrating Changes of Plumage according to Sex and Season.]