The Strasbourg Museum

Abstract

A BRIEF notice of this Museum may not at this time be devoid of interest. It occupies ten large rooms in the Academy House of Strasbourg. Two rooms are devoted to Comparative Anatomy, and eight to the Zoological, Geological, and Mineralogical collections. One large hall is exclusively devoted to a collection of species indigenous to Alsace, and here its flora and fauna, both fossil and recent, will be found well represented. The large hall of Mammals contains about 2,000 specimens belonging to between 600 and 700 species, among which may be noticed a fine series of Felidæ, including two specimens of the rare Felis pardina of Portugal. Among the Ruminants are a grand specimen of the Ovis nivicola of Kamtschatka; four specimens of Tragelaphus from the mountains of Constantine, a large series in all stages of growth of the Antilope rupicapra from Switzerland, the Carpathians, and the Pyrenees; Capra semlaica of the Nilgherries; six specimens of C. œgagrus from Kurdistan, of which two are magnificent adult males and the others females and young; C. walee from Abyssinia, male and female; nine specimens of C. hispanica from the Sierra Nevada; seventeen of C. ibex, representing it in all its ages and in all states of wool; not to mention excellent specimens of C. pyrenaica, C. caucasica, C. altaica, and C. sinaica; indeed, it may be doubted if there is in any Museum a more complete collection of this interesting group. Of the Antelopes the Museum also possesses a grand series, and the attention in this corner of the hall will be at once attracted by the case of Reindeer, containing eight perfect specimens, representing the wild race of Norway, the domesticated animal of Lapland, and the varieties from Siberia, Greenland, and Labrador. There are also beautifully stuffed specimens of the European and American Bison, and among the Cervidæ we noticed a most interesting little variety from Corsica of Census elaphas.