A RUN THROUGH THE MUSEUMS OF EUROPE. 475 



be found. The wealth of these collections is in painful contrast with 

 the poverty of their surroundings. 



Though a little out of the order of our visit, we will now turn to 

 Geneva, where, in the Natural History Museum, we find everything 

 in agreeable contrast with the shortcomings of the National Museum 

 at Berne. The spacious and elegant building is comparatively new, 

 is well arranged for light and the exhibition of specimens, and is 

 pleasantly situated in the midst of a large, open park. Here may be 

 studied the famous conchological collections that once belonged to 

 the Duke of Massena, and which, to the student of this department of 

 science, alFord added interest as having been the types for Lamarck's 

 great work. Here, too, is an immensely rich and very interesting 

 collection of fossils, systematically arranged by the distinguished 

 Pictet, and, among them, all the geological types of De Saussure. 

 There is also an immense collection of coleopterous insects. The 

 ornithological collection of this museum is not large, but exception- 

 ally good. The specimens are all excellent, are well mounted, and 

 present several commendable features, rare in Continental collec- 

 tions. The exact locality where each specimen was obtained is care- 

 fully recorded, and the local group of the birds of Switzerland forms 

 an interesting and instructive feature. Another not common feature 

 is an excellent, systematically-arranged collection of the eggs of birds. 

 Though, comparatively speaking, not a large one, it is quite respect- 

 able even in point of numbers ; and, in the care given to its preser- 

 vation and in its arrangement, it is a model, and almost unique. 

 This department is under the charge of M. Alois Humbert, an excel- 

 lent ornithologist, whose explorations in Asia have contributed many 

 specimens of great rarity, one of tlie most interesting being a veri- 

 table nest of one of the tailor-birds, so long the subject of unverified 

 description. 



In Stuttgart, the capital of Wiirtemberg, is a very large and valu- 

 able Museum of Natural History, that fills twenty spacious rooms in the 

 Building of the Archives. To geologists, and to students of zoology 

 and comparative anatomy, its collections in these departments are 

 replete with interest. The collection of birds is very rich in rare 

 African types, but, in the absence of Prof. Krauss, the director, these 

 could not be inspected to advantage. The museum has no collection 

 of eggs, but there is in the little kingdom of Wiirtemberg probably 

 the largest oiJlogical collection in the world; the richest in its number 

 of species, and excelling in the rarity and beauty of specimens, and 

 in the extent and fullness of series, exhibiting variations in eggs of the 

 same species. It belongs to Baron von Warthausen, and is preserved 

 in his castle near Biberach. Unfortunately, I cannot speak of it from 

 my own observation, as I had gone far beyond it before my invitation 

 to visit and examine it overtook me in Dresden. It is, however, well 

 known to be of great and constantly-increasing value, containing one- 



