364 Letters, Announcements , 3fc. 



Obituary. Professor Schlegel. — Our Foreign Member, 

 Hermann Schlegel, the late distinguished Director of the 

 Leiden Museum and author o£ many well-known ornitho- 

 logical works, was of German origin, and was born at 

 Altenburg, in Saxony, in 1804. Inspired by an innate love 

 of natural objects, and not being satisfied to follow his 

 father^s trade, Schlegel betook himself, when quite young, 

 to the study of zoology at Vienna, whence, in 1825, he 

 was induced to go to Leiden, in the hope of obtaining 

 an aj)pointment as Naturalist in the East-Indian posses- 

 sions of Holland. The vacant post having been already 

 filled, Schlegel was obliged to content himself at first with 

 being amanuensis to. Temminck, but a few years later (29th 

 November, 1828) was appointed Conservator of the Museum. 

 Uj^on Temminck's death in 1858, Schlegel was named 

 Director, and Prof. Van der Hoeven, whose claims it was 

 difficult to ignore, Over-Director of the IMuseum. This un- 

 satisfactory arrangement did not last long; and in 1860 

 Schlegel became sole Director by Van der Hoeven^s resigna- 

 tion, and retained the post until his death, on the 17th of 

 January last. Schlegel was a highly cultivated man in many 

 respects, and wrote and spoke German, French, Dutch, and 

 English with equal facility. His fluency in English was 

 wonderful for one who had never been in our country. His 

 best-known ornithological works are those on the birds of 

 Holland (' De Vogels van Nederland beschreven en af- 

 gebeeld '), published at Leiden, 1854-58 ; his ' Revue Cri- 

 tique des oiseaux d^Europe ^ (1814); the ' Recherches sur 

 la Faune de Madagascar^ (1868), prepared in conjunction 

 with the traveller Pollen; the 'Monographic des Loxiens,^ 

 written jointly by him and Prince Charles Bonaparte ; and the 

 'Revue methodique et critique des collections du Museum 

 d'Histoire Naturelle des Pays-Bas.' This last-named work, 

 which on its completion was arranged to form eight thin 

 volumes, although pi^epared in a somewhat superficial way, 

 and in accordance with the occasionally fanciful views of 

 affinities held by its illustrious author, will long remain a 

 most important work of reference to ornithologists who are 

 engaged upon the study of the ornis of the Oriental Region. 



