7i 



PART IV. 



MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



Art. I. Natural History in Foreign Countries, 



FRANCE. 



Metz, Dec. 9. — Our last notes (Vol. I. p. 472.) left us in the Museum 

 here collected chiefly by M. HoUandre, and proposing to visit the cabinet 

 of birds of M. Meslier de Rocan, and the plantations of M. Durand, and of 

 the late Baron Tschoudy. M. Hollandre has published Fawie du Departe- 

 ment de la Moselle, et principalement des Environs de Metz, Sfc.y in 1 2mo, 

 1825. It is arranged after the system of Cuvier, and the number and variety 

 of birds are very considerable. At the end of the work a list is given of a 

 cabinet of white varieties of birds belonging to M. le baron Marchant, 

 which includes specimens perfectly white of birds usually black ; as the 

 crow, blackbird, magpie, &c. ; and of others naturally more or less red, as 

 the redbreast, &:c. 



The collection of birds in M. Meslier*s cabinet is confined to those of 

 Europe, and only wants two or three species to be complete. It is 

 arranged after the Manual of M. Temminck (4th edit. 1820), and is in 

 excellent preservation. He had been offered for it, as we were informed, 

 upwards of a thousand pounds. He gave us a MS. catalogue, which, with 

 the Faune of M. Hollandre, we have presented to the Zoological Society. 



The by-roads are in such a state in the neighbourhood of Metz, that at 

 this season we were informed it was scarcely possible to approach the plant- 

 ations of the late Baron Tschoudy at Colombo. We, therefore, after 

 taking leave of M. Coutie, Madame Coutie (who, having no children, and 

 finding it necessary to occupy herself with something, devoted herself to 

 botany, in which she is known to have acquired a scientific and practical 

 knowledge), M. Durand, M. Simon (the readers of our Magazines at 

 Metz), and our other friends there, and promising to return to them in 

 about two years, left for Paris on the lOth, and arrived there on the 12th 

 of December. 



Paris, Dec. 15. 1828, to Jan. 11. 1829. — It would not be very easy to 

 relate all that we saw and did here during our stay in September (Vol. I. 

 p. 585.) and at this time. It is unnecessary to talk of the Jardin des Plant es, 

 of the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle, and of other cabinets, libraries, and 

 exhibitions, which are, or ought to be, seen by every body. We had the 

 satisfaction of showing specimens of our forthcoming Encyclopcedia of 

 Plants and Hortus Britannicus, and of explaining the improvements which 

 we have attempted in the abridgment of botanical description to Pro- 

 fessor Decandolle, MM. Mirbel, Desfontaines, Bory de-St.- Vincent, Ad. 

 Brongniart, the Baron de F6'ussac, and a number of the members of the 

 Natural History Society, and of receiving their approbation. This appro- 

 bation, liowever, we shall only value when we see our improvements 

 adopted by these gentlemen in their published works ; and this we do not 



