1892.] IN THE LIDTH DE JEUDE COLLECTION. 313 



This being all the historical evidence that I have been able to 

 gather about the Seba and Lidth de Jeude collections, I need 

 scarcely say that I shall be most grateful to anyone who may 

 happen to find any pertinent references to either of them and who 

 would give me information thereof. 



To pass now to the evidence derived from the specimens them- 

 selves and their agreements with the Seba's descriptions and 

 figures. 



In the first volume of Seba's work about 90 Mammalia are 

 figured and described, and 7 in the second. Of these we must 

 eliminate those that were probably among the Paris set (see below), 

 besides a considerable number more which, owing to their size, 

 could not have been preserved in spirit, and such again as Seba 

 states were not in his own collection. This would leave some 70 or 

 80 for which originals may be sought. Many of these are of 

 animals so rare, even to the present day, that their independent 

 possession both by Seba and Lidth de Jeude would itself be unlikely ; 

 and still more unlikely that the specimens belonging to the latter 

 should have been able so closely to match the figures given by the 

 former, in age, size, and above all in sex, a point on which Seba was 

 fortunately very careful to give particulars. 



Of the cases put forward in the following hst, some few depend 

 of course merely on an ordinary specific resemblance, and one can 

 only say that there is no disqualifying point, such as wrong sex or 

 age ; but in others, and indeed in the majority, there is a strong 

 imdividual resemblance between the figure and the specimen, often 

 confirmed by some collateral evidence extracted from Seba's de- 

 scriptions. Such cases as those of the Opossums with their varying 

 numbers of mammae visible or in use, of the Lutra brasiliensis 

 with its wrinkled sides, and of the pair of Tamias with the right 

 sexes and number of stripes respectively, are far beyond anything 

 that one could possibly suppose might be due merely to accidental 

 coincidence. 



In the table now exhibited (pp. 314-15) the first column gives the 

 number of the plate and figure in Seba, the second the name of the 

 species, and the third the British Museum register-number of the 

 specimen I assign to the figure. These specimens will of course 

 always be open to the inspection and comparison of anyone interested 

 in the subject. 



It is unfortunate that, before the history of the collection was 

 suspected, many of the specimens were taken out for examination 

 and rebottled in modern bottles, but in all cases the fact of their 

 having actually come from the Lidth de Jeude collection is beyond 

 question. Without such taking out, however, exact specific deter- 

 mination is occasionally very difficult, and some animals are 

 therefore inserted in the table merely under their generic names, as 

 without very special reason it would not be right to unseal the ancient 

 and interesting bottles which contain them. 



