A RUN THROUGH THE MUSEUMS OF EUROPE. 479 



that is worthy of consideration. The construction of the national rail- 

 roads of Piedmont enriched its paleontological department with many 

 unique and wonderful relics of the dark ages of geology ; and, above 

 all, in its director, Count Tommaso Salvadori, the Museum of Turin pos- 

 sesses one who is conceded to be, par excellence, the ornithologist of 

 Italy, and who enjoys a world-wide reputation as among the first in 

 this department of science. The collection of birds is, of course, well 

 arranged and especially interesting in types. At the time of our visit, 

 Salvadori's private room was literally strewed with many hundred spe- 

 cimens of birds-of-paradise, representing all but two or three species 

 of this family, with series by the hundred of several species. These 

 had been recently collected by two Italian travelers, one set belong- 

 ing to the Italian Government, the other to the Civic Museum of Gen- 

 oa, and referred to Salvadori for examination, and to aid him in his 

 monograph of this family. 



The Garden of Plants, in Paris, is an institution too generally fa- 

 miliar to require more than a passing mention. The new houses for the 

 protection of the living animals are models in their contrivance, more 

 es^jecially the one for the reptiles and batrachians. The Ornithologi- 

 cal Museum, though not of itself very extensive, is particularly inter- 

 esting to scientific students as the depository of collections made by 

 the several national exploring expeditious of France. Among these 

 are many unique and typical specimens, not known to exist else- 

 where in museums. The collection of eggs is also wonderfully in- 

 teresting, is very large and well preserved, and contains not only 

 many very rare kinds, but is especially noteworthy as possessing a 

 large number of species not to be found in any other public collection, 

 some of them laid by birds in confinement. 



Leyden, in Holland, could not be passed by without at least a 

 brief visit to the venerable Dr. Schlegel, and the far-famed museum 

 under his charge. The time was, and that not immemorial, when this 

 museum contained the largest collection of birds in the world. Even 

 now it is surpassed by very few, and is still superior to all others in 

 its representations of East Indian species. Its strongest point is its 

 collection of monkeys, to which class of animals Dr. Schlegel has 

 given great attention, and of this our ancestral family according 

 to Darwin it possesses the surprising number of 1,500 different spe- 

 cies. Dr. Schlegel, though of mature years, is still in vigorous health, 

 a most charming old man, bright, cheerful, and affable, possessing an 

 inexhaustible fund of conversation and knowledge, enriched by the 

 careful observation of a long and well-spent life. His museum pos- 

 sesses a very rich collection of the eggs of the birds of Java and other 

 East Indian possessions of the Dutch. 



Of the British Museum, as a whole, it would be impossible to speak 

 from competent knowledge, except with much more time than we 

 could give to so endless a task. The writer will say that all he did or 



