Vo 



"go- J Corfcspofidciice. aq 



vol. i., p. 112 el SCO., wherein Mrs. Langloh- Parker gives many 

 native names for birds. The various articles that Mr. Milligan has 

 contributed to The Emu should also be consulted ; some others 

 also. But there are "so many aboriginal dialects, in most of which 

 the name of each bird varies, that the names given possess no 

 meaning save to those in the immediate locality. It would be 

 worth the while of someone who possesses the requisite material and 

 knowledge to compile a list of the aboriginal names of birds, 

 tabulated according to the various dialects. A great deal of inform- 

 ation is available in such works as those of the lamented Rev. 

 J. W. Draper, K. Brough Smyth, and the journals of the various 

 explorers. The memorable records which Dr Howitt has made 

 would perhaps be better than all — certainly as far as Victoria is 

 concerned. — H. K.] 



Review. 



THE THREE NAUMANNS. 



To hand is a reprint of Dr. Paul Leverkiihn's contribution to 

 Naumann's " Natural History of the Birds of Central Europe." 

 The original work of Johann Andreas Naumann appeared in 4 

 \-olumes and 8 supplements, iy(.)^-i8iy ; his son Johann Friedrich 

 l)rought out a second edition, with much added matter, in ij 

 volumes, 1820-1844 ; and the present edition, which was published 

 last year in 12 volumes, under the editorship of Dr. Hennicke 

 (F. E. Kohler, Gera-Untermhaus) is the third. Of the many 

 collaborators in the letterpress. Dr. Leverkiihn, of Sofia, Bulgaria, 

 was entrusted with the task of writing the story of the life and 

 work of these three German ornithologists — Johann Andreas 

 Naumann (1744-1826) and his sons, Johann Friedrich (1780-1857) 

 and Carl Andreas (1786-1856). 



Dr. Leverkiihn, in addition to mucli excellent biographical 

 material, reproduces the elder Naumann's preface and conclusion, 

 and J. F. Naumann's introduction to the second edition and preface 

 to its several parts, with eight of his letters to contemporaries. It 

 is from these pieces of autobiography that we get the clearest 

 portrait of the Naumanns. They came of a stock of small farmers 

 and bird-catchers, settled for centuries at Ziebigk, in the principality 

 of Anhalt-Cothen, a district then very rich in birds. The characters 

 of father and son were singularly alike. Each was diligent in 

 observation and faithful in the record of what he saw ; upon each, 

 too, came in his childhood the strong, enthusiastic love of nature, 

 and remained till death. They had but small education. The 

 father says of himself — " I am more practised in the construction 

 of snares than of sentences, and have ever been an explorer of 

 nature rather than of books." Johann Friedrich Naumann, how- 

 ever, read everything to be had pertaining to ornithology, and to 

 his father's powers of observation he added a talent for drawing. 



