Letters, Announcements, i^c. 609 



He was passionately fond o£ collecting birds, and, being 

 a wealthy man, he succeeded in making one of the most 

 splendid private collections, numbering over 20,500 mounted 

 specimens (with about 500 skeletons), belonging to 7200 

 species. There is nothing equal or approaching to this 

 in Italy, even in public collections, the richest of these, 

 that of the Museum of Turin, not yet reaching 10,000 spe- 

 cimens. 



Count Turati began his collection at the early age of fifteen, 

 in October 1844, with a few birds killed by himself in Lom- 

 bardy, and gradually increased and even enriched it with 

 important specimens and typical collections. Among these 

 we have to notice Malherbe^s typical collection of Wood- 

 peckers, that of Loche^s birds of Algeria, and the choicest 

 part of Verreaux^s Humming-birds. The New-Guinea col- 

 lection, consisting of d^Albertis^s, Beccari^s,Bruijn^s, Meyer^s, 

 and Laglaize^s duplicates, is particularly rich. Some groups 

 are extraordinarily numerous — among others the Birds of 

 Paradise (which includes the finest specimens to be seen), 

 that of the Parrots (containing more than 350 species, with 

 more than 1000 specimens), those of the Woodpeckers, of the 

 Humming-birds, of the Goatsuckers, of the Pigeons, of the 

 Hawks, of the Ducks, and of the Struthious birds. Among 

 the things worthy of particular notice are a mounted specimen 

 and a skeleton of AIca impennis, also a mounted specimen of 

 Nestor productus, both species, as is well known, being extinct. 

 Besides, in the late Count Tui'ati's collection are more than 

 one hundred typical specimens, some of which are still unique. 

 It would take too long to mention the many typical Papuan 

 specimens described by Meyer or by the undersigned, so we 

 shall only mention here Verreaux^s DiphlogcBna traversi, Ma- 

 lacoptila castanea, Dryoscojms turat'd, and Pinsch's Lamprolia 

 victorice, Charmosyna josephinm, Goura scJieepmakeri , and 

 many others. 



One of the peculiarities of the late Turati^s collection is 

 the great number of varieties, albinos, melanisms, and other 

 kinds. 



Count Turati's collection was accessible to everybody, as 



SEK. IV. VOL. v. 2 u 



