Taxidermy: A Cased Long-Eared Owl (Asio otus), by William Hope, Taxidermist, 44 george Street, Edinburgh, a full mount adult with head turning slightly to the left, perched atop a small tree stump, amidst a natural setting of ferns, dry grasses and fauna, set against a watercolour painted back drop, enclosed within a typical period three-glass table display case, 32cm by 17cm by 43.5cm. From the collection of colonel Harrison at fakenham hall, Colonel James Harrison of Brandesburton Hall, in East Yorkshire, was a traveller. While travelling through the Congo River basin in 1904 he met the indigenous Pygmy tribe of the Ituri Forest. On 1 June 1905 six Africans arrived in London on the Orestes. They had been coaxed from the rain forests of the eastern Congo by James J. Harrison. Their infamous stay in Britain included recording the first African music and attending Princess Victorias birthday party at Buckingham palace.