2172 The Zoologist — Junk, 1870. 



whole ciU appeared to be. Subsequent observation only corroborated 

 these first impressions, and I now unhesitatingly declare that no town 

 of southern lands, not even Turin, which in some respects it resembles, 

 presents a cleaner, fairer appearance than the much-maligned city of 

 Lisbon." — p. 19. This is penned by the author, not simply as the 

 result of personal experience, but as a contrast and antidote to Lord 

 Byron's celebrated description, quoted above. Again, he seems 

 equally disposed to disparage Cintra ; his notes on which "terrestrial 

 Paradise" he prefaces in these words: "In the last chapter I was at 

 issue with Lord Byron in regard to the general character of the 

 Porluguese: not less do I dissent from what appears to me his most 

 exaggerated praise of Cintra." 



Not only has Mr. Smith a strong feeling in favour of Portugal, but 

 also, and perhaps necessarily, of the Portuguese ; and he loses no 

 opportunity of exalting them at the expense of tiieir neighbours in 

 Spain, whose inferiority is set forth in contrast on every convenient 

 occasion. I have no tiieans of judging between opinions so decidedly 

 opposed to those which have become conventional, neither has the 

 'Zoologist' any business with aught beyond the Zoology of this 

 work; and this is comprised in three passages, all of which are 

 instructive : the first refers to the Museum at Coimbra, and is given 

 verbatim below. 



" I had heard that the Museum of Natural History was of super- 

 lative excellence ; indeed Murphy describes it as ' inferior to few in 

 Europe;' so that my expectations were raised to a high pitch; but 

 when I came to examine the zoological dejiarlment I was woefully 

 disappointed. There is doubtless a large collection of Mammalia, 

 birds and reptiles, but it is a collection ranging over the whole world, 

 and rich in no single class ; not even in the productions of the Brazils 

 and Azores, for which Portugal has of course superior facilities. And 

 then the specimens generally were so miserably set up as to be mere 

 deformities and ghosts of the animals they represented. Of birds 

 there were very few deserving of notice, and for the rarer Einopean 

 species, which one might expect in this southern corner of the 

 Continent, I looked in vain for any examples; indeed, Aquila 

 Ronelli and Porphyrio Veterura were the only real Portuguese 

 rarities which the Museum contained; and there was not even a 

 single specimen of Otis tarda, Cyanopica Cooki and Turnix cam- 

 pestris ; none of which are by any means rare in this country. 

 Passing on to other rooms, there is inidoubtcdly an excellent series 



