( 39 ) 



Fortunately tliere is sometliiug more to go by than C. L. Brelim's i)ubIiciitions, 

 because he left at the time of his death, in 1804, a heritage which by some is 

 considered more valuable than his writings, in the form of the then richest collection 

 of European birds. Already before his death this collection was offered for sale 

 in a footnote in the " Naumaunia," and afterwards his son, Alfred Brehm, published 

 a rough catalogue of it, and offered it for sale to the world at large. All the time 

 since then the collection was inadequately keirt, beetles, moths, and mildew had 

 their little jtrey on it, and it must be considered a blame to ornithologists that this 

 state of things was allowed to continue, especially as general attention had been 

 called to Alfred Brehm's catalogue of his father's collection by Dresser, who quoted 

 most of the subspecific terms (among them many " nomina nuda '') mentioned in 

 that pamphlet, under the head of the species to which they seemed to belong. 

 Quite recently Kleinschmidt, Rothschild and Hartert became interested in the 

 fate of the Brehm collection. The former went to Renthendorf in 1896, mipacked 

 and repacked the fifty odd large boxes in which it was tightly stored away, and 

 thns checked the destruction for a time, while making a careful statement of its 

 present condition. In 1S!_»7 Dr. Walter Rothschild, with his usual warm interest 

 for all that is of scientific value, purchased the collection. Hartert and Kleinschmidt 

 went to Renthendorf, overhauled, packed and despatched the collection, which is 

 now in safety and accessible in the Museum at Triug. The damage done to it is 

 comparatively small, for there are still about 10,1)00 well labelled specimens in 

 a generally satisfactory condition, and we have not yet found much of great 

 importance missing, except the Great Auk, which was long ago exchanged for 

 some rare old " Dresden," and some Rapaces. 



The valae of the Brehm collection is threefold : — ■ 



1. It represents in a wonderful way the ornis of Central Germany. The series 

 are large, and often showing all stages of age. The subspecies inhabiting Thuringia 

 and other parts of Germany cannot be better studied than from this collection, 

 although the colours of some of the species are occasionally faded or obscured. 



2. It forces us — if we wish to criticise Brehm's so-called subspecies— to work 

 out the geograjihical forms of almost every species throughout its range. 



3. It gives an idea of the individual variation of the various species. 



By Dr. Rothschild's special desire, every specimen with a label, no matter 

 whether in fine condition, whether rare or common, has been saved, and is kept 

 in the Tring Museum. 



A great number of unlabelled individuals and fragments of labels have been 

 presented to Herr Pfarrer Kleinschmidt, who, with Dr. Alfred Brehm's manuscript 

 diaries from his various travels, investigates every specimen before it is eventually 

 destroyed, and who has in several cases found out the origin of important 

 specimens. 



Herr Kleinschmidt and I shall now, mostly as joint authors, sometimes one 

 or the other alone, give a critical catalogue of all the Brehm specimens in the 

 Tring Museum, and those few preserved in Kleinschmidt's collection, which are 

 of value. 



These articles will be written in German, because they necessitate many 

 German quotations, because they are of special interest also to German ornitho- 

 logists, and because the Brehm labels are mostly in German. 



