2176 The Zoologist— June, 1870. 



language which I could comprehend ; amongst them I must especially 

 mention Dr. Suche and Professor Barbosa du Bocage, the former 

 a fellow-labourer of Vigors, an experienced collector and preserver of 

 some of the larger mammals and reptiles in South America ; the latter 

 the scientific and indefatigable director of the Museum at Lisbon, 

 with whom 1 had many pleasant interviews, and who pointed out to 

 me the more remarkable objects in the national collection, which, 

 thanks to his exertions, is already assuming considerable importance, 

 and must, in the course of a few years, if the present admirable system 

 is continued, become extremely rich, not only in home specimens, but 

 in the productions of the Portuguese foreign possessions and of the 

 Brazils. * * * * 



" In an article which 1 published in the ' Ibis' (New Series, vol. iv. 

 pp. 428 — 460) I enumerated 193 species as identified by myself either 

 in the flesh or in Portuguese collections at Lisbon and Covrabra ; 

 I also made incidental mention of 57 others as confidently asserted to 

 be well known in Portugal by those on whose accuracy 1 could rely. 

 This made a total of '250; and I added that the catalogue was still 

 imperfect, and only laid claim to be an outline, the details of which 

 1 trusted would shortly be followed up by some competent observer. 

 But already, in a recent review of my ' Ibis' article lately published 

 in a scientific periodical, Professor Barbosa du Bocage has been so 

 good as to add a very valuable supplement. * * * We have now 

 then, to our former catalogue of 193 verified Portuguese species, to 

 add a supplementary list of 42 no less carefully determined, which 

 swells the list to 235 ; and if we reckon those of whose appearance in 

 Portugal we have been assured, though hitherto they have not been 

 positively identified, we arrive at a grand total of 256 species." — 

 p. 183. 



The most recent list of British birds of which I am cognizant is 

 that published by myself as an appendix to ' Montagu's Ornithological 

 Dictionary': it contains 381, and four additional species have been 

 discovered since 1866, the date of its publication ; thus the British has 

 a clear majority of 129 over the Portuguese list. But there is another 

 point to be mentioned that considerably increases the discrepancy : 

 out of the 256 birds inhabiting Portugal 32 European species appear 

 in the Portuguese which do not appear in the British list ; hence the 

 actual proportion of nominally British birds that have occurred in 

 Portugal is only 232, or little more than half. How is this to be 

 accounted for ? Let us first take into con.sideration those American 



