THE FRANCO-GERMAN WAR. 69 
crossed mandibles, which immediately reminded me of one 
picked up ina street at Faversham, and figured as a fron- 
tispiece by Mr. Lewin to the first volume of his “British 
Birds ;” and I noticed a young Brent Goose with a very 
dark breast. The very great differences in the colour of the 
underparts of the Brent will be fully entered into in the 
third volume of the “ Birds of Norfolk.” The birds were very 
fairly stuffed, and the European series good. Many speci- 
mens were varieties, the most remarkable deviations being 
an extraordinary /usus of a Blackbird, a very singular Bull- 
finch, and the Nuthatches already mentioned. 
The Zoological Gardens::possess a good many interesting 
birds for so small a place; but I will only mention one of 
them, which was a white Magpie with pink eyes. Albinism, 
not leucotism. Flitting about in the bushes were Marsh 
Tits, Tree Sparrows, and Yellow Hammers. The Tree 
Sparrow is certainly a very common bird on the continent 
of Europe. In Lorraine I consider it was the most numer- 
ous of all small birds, which assuredly could not be said of 
it in any county in Great Britain. It is an inhabitant of 
the country. I only once saw one in a village. ‘ 
The “iron road” makes a considerable detour before 
entering Strasbourg. The point where the train enters the 
walls appeared to have been made a special mark, if one 
might judge from the numerous dints with which the bricks 
were pitted. The drawbridge was also burnt, and some 
brass guns on the ramparts had met with very severe usage ; 
but the oddest sight was a long train of empty trucks which 
had been drawn up three deep, and which had come in for’ 
their full share of the knocking about. 
One or two holes had been made in the Museum, but 
nothing of any consequence was lost. It is inthe Rue de 
lAcadémie. The birds are in first-rate preservation with 
the exception of the Great Auk, which is unhappily a 
wretched specimen. Part of its neck is bare, its lower 
