How to See the British Museum in Four Visits — John Shaqi
How to See the British Museum in Four VisitsJerrold, Blanchard
History
How to See the British Museum in Four Visits
Jerrold, Blanchard
British Museum
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 monkeys. The next two cases contain specimens of the lemurs,
more familiarly known as Madagascar monkies. Of these the flying lemur
is the most remarkable species. Specimens of this species are grouped
in the lower part of the cases; they are from the Indian Archipelago;
and in the texture of their skin and the loose and light way in which
it connects their limbs, they resemble bats. They nurse their young by
forming a kind of couch with their body suspended downwards from the
branches of a tree.
It now remains for the visitor to direct his attention to the fine
collection of
RAPACIOUS ANIMALS,
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