THE FRANCO-GERMAN WAR. 69 



crossed mandibles, which immediately reminded me of one 

 picked up in a street at Faversham, and figured as a fron- 

 tispiece by Mr. Lewin to the first volume of his " British 

 Birds;" and I noticed a young Brent Goose with a very 

 dark breast. The very great differences in the colour of the 

 underparts of the Brent will be fully entered into in the 

 third volume of the " Birds of Norfolk." The birds were very 

 fairly stuffed, and the European series good. Many speci- 

 mens were varieties, the most remarkable deviations being 

 an extraordinary Ikshs of a Blackbird, a very singular Bull- 

 finch, and the Nuthatches already mentioned. 



The Zoological Gardens possess a good many interesting 

 birds for so small a place ; but I will only mention one of 

 them, which was a white Magpie with pink eyes. Albinism, 

 not leucotism. Flitting about in the bushes were Marsh 

 Tits, Tree Sparrows, and Yellow Hammers. The Tree 

 Sparrow is certainly a very common bird on the continent 

 of Europe. In Lorraine I consider it was the most numer- 

 ous of all small birds, which assuredly could not be said of 

 it in any county in Great Britain. It is an inhabitant of 

 the country. I only once saw one in a village. 



The " iron road " makes a considerable detour before 

 entering Strasbourg. The point where the train enters the 

 walls appeared to have been made a special mark, if one 

 might judge from the numerous dints with which the bricks 

 were pitted. The drawbridge was also burnt, and some 

 brass guns on the ramparts had met with very severe usage ; 

 but the oddest sight was a long train of empty trucks which 

 had been drawn up three deep, and which had come in for 

 their full share of the knocking about. 



One or two holes had been made in the Museum, but 

 nothing of any consequence was lost. It is in the Rue de 

 I'Academie. The birds are in first-rate preservation with 

 the exception of the Great Auk, which is unhappily a 

 wretched specimen. Part of its neck is bare, its lower 



