Letters, Announcements, ^c. 337 



regular classes at the Universities of Pavia and Genoa, and 

 thus to prepare himself carefully for scientific travel. The 

 result was the two great expeditions of 1822 and 1832. In 

 the first of these Riippell explored Egypt, Nubia, and Kor- 

 dofan. This expedition, as well as the second, of which the 

 object was the exploration of the then almost unknown fauna 

 of Abyssinia, resulted in the discovery of a large number of 

 new species in every branch of natural history, besides estab- 

 lishing many others up to that time very little known. The 

 number of new birds discovered by Riippell amounted to 130 

 at least, and his labours in the cause of ornithology in these 

 countries must always place his name amongst those of the 

 first rank in the history of the birds of Africa. Indeed 

 RUppeirs w^orks have formed the ground upon which all 

 subsequent labours on the ornithology of North-eastern Africa 

 have been based. 



The three works which bring everlasting fame to the name 

 of Riippell are : — (1) The 'Atlas zu der Reise im nordlichen 

 Afrika,' published at Frankfort in 1826 ; (2) his 'Neue 

 Wirbelthiere zu der Fauna von Abyssinien gehorig' (Frank- 

 fort, 1835) ; and (3) his ' Systematische Uebersicht der Yogel 

 Nordost-Afrika's ' (1845) . 



The last-mentioned work, in 8vo, contains a summary of 

 the ornithological portions of the two former, and is further 

 remarkable for the excellent illustrations annexed to it, pre- 

 pared by the master hand of Joseph Wolf. Besides these 

 great works Riippell published several smaller ornithological 

 memoirs, chiefly in the ' Abhandlungen ' of the Museum 

 Senckenbergianura. He also contributed a paper containing 

 descriptions of two new species of Touraco to the ' Trans- 

 actions of the Zoological Society of London,' of which Society 

 Riippell was at the time of his death the senior Foreign 

 Member. 



As is well known, Riippell gave the whole of his rich col- 

 lections to the Senckenbergian Institution of his native city, 

 where every opportunity is offered to those who wish to ex- 

 amine the typical specimens. It is also to one of RiippelFs 

 trained collectors, Martin Bretzka, that science is indebted 



SER. V. VOL. in. 2 A 



