Stuffed and mounted - 22 February 2009

The weather was not as brilliant as yesterday but good walking weather nevertheless. A shorter walk just outside the M25 took us along a number of ‘lanes’ which may once have seen regular traffic but were no longer used in any way other than recreational.

We have, many times, driven past the sign to the Museum of Natural History in Tring, largely the collection of Walther Rothschild. It is a truly amazing collection of stuffed birds, fish, reptiles, marsupials and mammals all in amazingly good condition and beautifully posed, mounted and displayed. With a free entry it is hard to beat for an intriguing day out.

We were disappointed not to see a kiwi in the huge bird collection but on an upper floor, in pride of place among “Walter’s favourites”, was the kiwi.

Walter had a flock of kiwi and could not bear to leave them behind when he went to Cambridge University so he took them with him. How the other residents of Magdalene College responded to said kiwi invasion is unknown.