Abstract
THE administration report for 1937 of the acting director of the Colombo Museum, P. E. P. Deraniya-gala, shows that in many directions the activity of the museum is maintained. Steady additions are being made to the zoological collections, notably by expeditions carried out by the staff or by the staff jointly with representatives of the British Museum, so that the director considers that the accumulation of material is now sufficient to justify the publication of detailed monographs. At the same time, attention ought to be directed to the public galleries, and the replacement of the misleading and faded specimens in the bird gallery would doubtless be appreciated by the half-million visitors who pass through the galleries each year and especially by the large number of school-children (12,288) who make use of the exhibits in the course of their nature study instruction. A suggestion that the collection of living animals should be transferred to the Government Zoological Gardens at Dehiwala was strenuously opposed by the Committee of Management, and instead efforts are being made to improve and extend this museum zoo, which is an invaluable educational adjunct to the mounted collections. The Ethnological Department has begun a survey of the native population, and various expeditions have been carried out for a study of cultural institutions and social and economic conditions.
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The Colombo Museum. Nature 142, 868–869 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/142868c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/142868c0