Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 11.djvu/490

474 nests and eggs. It was in the dwelling of one of the prosperous fur merchants of that city, a gentleman of culture, who, without making any pretensions to scientific attainments, had got together one of the largest and richest local collections in oölogy on the Continent of Europe. It contained between seven and eight thousand specimens, well prepared, carefully arranged, and wonderfully rich in suites and varying sets, of the eggs of European (chiefly Prussian) birds. While I afterward saw other private collections that may contain the eggs of more species, I saw none that so fully presented, in series of sets, the eggs of the birds of any one locality. It was an interesting peculiarity that this collection had been commenced by its owner's grandfather, and three generations had made its increase the amusement and study of their leisure moments. Pains had been taken to note the date of each separate acquisition, and such a collection is thus rendered peculiarly interesting to the student of the local ornithology, on account of the light it cannot fail to throw upon the relative abundance and distribution of the birds of the region. Unfortunately for the student of science, such collections as this are rare and exceptional.

In Berne, the capital of Switzerland, is the National Museum of that republic. This contains an immense mass of materials, illustrative of various departments, some of them in good preservation, but others quite the reverse. A commendable effort had been begun to exhibit all the species of the animal kingdom found in Switzerland, but the space allotted is insufficient; the show-cases are ill arranged, and betray an evident want of funds sufficient to keep up to the highest standard what might have been made one of the finest collections of its kind in the world. One contributor had given to the museum what must have been in its day a very fine collection of the nests and eggs of the birds of Switzerland, including several eggs of that now nearly extinct bird, the lammergeyer of the Alps. Long exposure to the light and dust had rendered the whole valueless.

The geological and mineralogical collections have fared better, and are really very fine. The pure crystals of black quartz are of immense size, and those of clouded topaz are truly magnificent. One cannot doubt the correctness of their claim to be the finest in the world. Crowded into the small apartments of an irregular building, though well worth a noble hall, devoted exclusively to their exhibition and preservation, are some of the most interesting historical collections anywhere to be met with. Besides the relics of the ancient Lake-dwellers, which seem almost to unite the two departments of ethnology and geology, may be seen the remarkable trophies captured by the Swiss in their memorable war with the Burgundians, under Duke Charles the Bold, four centuries ago last summer (in 1476), including a rich altar-piece, and the tapestries and other costly trappings of his regal tent, which are among the most interesting relics to