2 6+ THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and his life was too short to compass everything. But he opened a 

 new door to the vertebrate world ; and, if the question be asked how 

 it was possible to give so large and expensive a book permanent cur- 

 rency with the German public, the answer must be found in tbe sym- 

 pathetic element of the work, which brought a new world so near to 

 us, and so inspired it that the soul-life of animals is no longer an 

 empty sound. 



It was Alfred Brehm's privilege to grow up among the most fa- 

 vorable circumstances conceivable for a nascent naturalist. He was 

 born on the 2d of February, 1829, at Renthendorf, near Neustadt, on the 

 Orla. He could have had no better guide to his future course than his 

 father, the pastor of the parish, who as " Father Brehm " was known 

 among the older ornithologists of his time as indisputably one of the 

 most distinguished observers of the habits of birds. What the no less 

 eminent ornithologist Z. F. Naumann was for Anhalt and its vicinity, 

 Christian L. Brehm was for Thuringia, a favorite region for all lovers 

 of birds, and full of inspiration for youth having a taste for natural his- 

 tory. This inspiration could not fail to work deeply in so receptive a 

 spirit as the son possessed, and he thus grew up literally in an ornitho- 

 logical atmosphere, in which his especial taste and aptitude later took 

 tirm root. Thus were early developed in him the future ornithologist 

 and the self-reliant, independent spirit. In 1847 the famous and 

 wealthy African traveler, Baron J. W. von Midler, proposed that he 

 go with him to Africa as his ornithological assistant. It was known 

 that young Brehm was already not only an accomplished ornithologist, 

 who was acquainted with the voices of all the birds, but that he was 

 also a splendid shot, who had himself contributed many precious addi- 

 tions to his father's great collection of European birds, which was esti- 

 mated to contain nine thousand specimens. Brehm had just passed his 

 abiturient examinations when Midler's invitation came to him ; and, as 

 his father had nothing to say in opposition to it, he immediately made 

 his own conditions and decided to go. The journey was to be under- 

 taken at once, and to last five years. Brehm did not return till 1852, 

 after he had explored Egypt, Nubia, and Eastern Soudan, countries that 

 have always had great attractions for zoologists, especially for ornithol- 

 ogists. Here is the resort of many birds which migrate from Europe 

 to seek a winter home in summer-land, and also the abode of a multitude 

 of African species which never leave that quarter of the world. Nau- 

 mann also sent his apostles hither at about the same time, and one of 

 them, the youthful Vierthaler, who has long been resting in Nubian soil, 

 described with much spirit, in " Die Natur " for 1852, the kind of a bird- 

 paradise which he found on the banks of the White and the Blue Nile. 

 It was given to young Brehm alone comprehensively to depict this life 

 in his first publication, "Reise Skizzen aus Nordost Africa" ("Travel- 

 Sketches from Northeastern Africa"), three volumes, Jena, 1853. 

 After he had attended the University of Jena, and had subsequently 



