108 The Editor— Orn'Uhologij at Munich, S^-c. 



of specimens obtained by Fischer and Rosenberg in the 

 Sunda Islands and Moluccas form a valuable portion of 

 this collection. 



As regards Frankfort, the importance of the Sencken- 

 bergian Museum is known to every naturalist. It contains all 

 the collections of the great East-African explorer Riippell. 

 The present Conservator is Ilerr Koch. The birds are all 

 mounted, and there are about 10,000 specimens. I was 

 chiefly engaged here in examining the antelopes, but noticed 

 among the birds several rarities, such as Balaniceps rex 

 (White Nile, Heuglin), Haliaetus vociferoides (from Mada- 

 gascar), and Otis nuba (Nubia) . There is a single specimen of 

 Alca impennis. But Mr. Hartert has recently published a 

 complete catalogue of the Senckenbergian birds^, and it is not 

 necessary, therefore, for me to say more about them, except 

 that they are correctly named and in excellent order. It is, 

 hovrever, in my opinion highly questionable whether all 

 these valuable types should be kept as mounted specimens. 

 The best plan would probably be to reduce them into skins 

 and to place them in cabinets, in which state they would 

 certainly suffer much less deterioration. 



At Cassel, where I had the pleasure of attending the 

 meeting of the Allgemeine Deutsche Ornithologische Gesell- 

 schaft, there is a collection of mounted birds in the Natu- 

 ralien-Museum in the Friedrich's-Platz under the care of 

 Dr. Lenz. It contains about 2300 specimens. It is chiefly 

 remarkable for having a nearly complete set of Cuban birds, 

 presented by the well-known naturalist Dr. Gundlach of 

 Havana, who is a native of Cassel. Amongst them I noticed 

 a good specimen of the rare Cymindis wilsoni. There is said to 

 have formerly been a specimen oiAlca impennis in this museum. 

 Besides the general collection there is a separate series of 

 the birds that breed in the Province, about 130 in all. 



* Katalog der "N'ogelsammlung im Museum der Senckenbergischen 

 Natuiforschenden Gesellschaft in P^rankfurt-am-Main. Von Ernst 

 Hartert. Frankfurt- a.-Main, 1891. 



