CONDITION OP COLLECTIONS IN LONDON Si 
Quadrupeds ill stuffed—birds wretched. There is 
not one specimen in a characteristic attitude.’’ 
With reference to his visit to the Dublin College 
Museum he writes :— 
“ There is a considerable number of skeletons, 
but almost all uningeniously articulated, and in 
the most preposterous attitudes. About six are 
excellent, however. ... In this department almost 
everything is in the most wretched disorder.” 
With regard to his visit to the Dublin Zoological 
Gardens he says :— 
“ The collection is good and infinitely superior 
to a museum of five times the number. These 
collections will in time teach zoological painters 
the characteristic attitudes of animals, of which 
Audubon and myself are the only persons who 
have succeeded in attempting to afford an idea in 
so far as regards birds. As to stuffed animals, they 
are altogether entirely and wholly absurd.” 
With regard to Montague’s collection of British 
birds in the British Museum he writes :— 
“ It is fine on account of its extent, bijt does not 
contain ten well-stuffed specimens. When are we 
to see some improvement in this art? Surely it 
were better to give an artist twenty shillings for a 
fine specimen than five for a bad one.” 
With regard to the anatomical and pathological 
collection at the London University he writes:— 
“The preparations are very beautiful. The 
F 
