106 The Editor — Oniitholoyy at Munich, ^c. 



VIII. — Ornithology at Munich, Stuttgart, Darmstadt, 

 Fraid'fort, and Cassel. By The Editor. 



Rkturning from the Eiigadine in September last the Editor 

 took the opportunity of visiting the museums of Municli, 

 Stuttgart, Darmstadt, Frankfort, and Cassel, and thinks that 

 a few remarks upon the collections of birds in each of these 

 cities may be of interest. 



At Munich the "^Zoologisch-Zootomische Sammlung" of 

 the Academy of Sciences is now under the Conservatorship 

 of Dr. R. Hertvvig. It contains a large series of mounted 

 birds, some 13,000 in number, but no collection of skins. 

 The collection was originally based mainly on the old Eich- 

 stadt collection, bequeathed by the Duke of Leuchtenberg 

 many years ago, and the specimens in it are not all in 

 good preservation. It is chiefly interesting to ornitholo- 

 gists as containing the types of Spix's "Aves Brasili- 

 enses,^^ obtained during the celebrated journey of Spix and 

 Martius to Brazil in 1817-20. It is very desirable that 

 an accurate examination should be made of these types, 

 as some of Spix's species are rather uncertain. Some of 

 the types, I believe, are no longer to be found in the 

 series. There is no separate collection of Bavarian birds at 

 Munich, and the only authority I know of on the Birds of 

 Bavaria specially is JackePs * Systematische Uebersicht der 

 Vogel Bayerns ' {cf. Ibis, 1892, p. 335j. There seems to 

 be no ornithologist now at Munich. On the other hand, the 

 palseontological collection of the Academy (under the care of 

 Prof. Dr. Bitter v. Zittel) is very fine, embracing a splendid 

 series of remains from the Solenhofen Deposits. It is 

 curious, however, that of the only two known examples of 

 ArchdBopteryx lithographlcus, the greatest rarity of the Solen- 

 hofen strata, one is at Berlin and the other in London. 



At Stuttgart Dr. v. Fraas is the Director of the '' Natu- 

 ralicn-Cabinet," which I had the pleasure of inspecting in 

 the company of one of his assistants, Dr. Vosseler, Dr. 

 Klunzinger, Professor of Zoology at the Polytechnicum, and 

 the Preparator, Hcrr Kerz. The series of birds in the gallery, 



