Recent Acquisitions at the British Museum (Natural History)

Abstract

THE Department of Zoology has received as a permanent loan from His Majesty the King a mounted specimen of a cock scarlet-breasted parrakeet (Neophema splendida) which was formerly kept as a pet by His late Majesty King George V. This beautifully coloured bird, together with six other members of the same genus, is a native of Australia; it is now very rare, and the Museum possesses only a few examples. Two important collections have been acquired by the Department of Geology. One comprises a large series of Pleistocene and Quaternary mammals, chiefly from Clacton and the Lee Valley, collected over a series of many years by Mr. S. Hazzledine Warren, of Loughton, with special regard to their exact horizon and locality. The other acquisition consists of nearly two hundred type and figured specimens from the collection of Mr. J. W. Tutcher, of Bristol, of Jurassic invertebrate fossils, mostly Liassic ammonites from the Radstock district, described by the late Mr. S. S. Buckman. Mr. F. N. Ashcroft, who has long been a generous donor to the Mineral Department, has presented a further selection from his collection of Swiss minerals. The selection numbers about eighty-four specimens from twenty carefully recorded localities, and forms a valuable addition to the now extensive series of specimens from Switzerland in the Collection. The recent cliff fall between Newton and Yarmouth brought to light the existence in the Isle of Wight of gypsum. Mr. W. White has given the Museum one of the largest crystals that has been found. The most conspicuous of the purchases are a group of well-formed crystals of the beautiful emerald-green copper mineral, dioptase, from the French Congo, a magnificent group of prismatic crystals of celestine, and a large well-crystallized specimen of native copper.