INTR OD UCTION ly 



Birds of the Hercynian Forest made its appearance at Pappenlieini in 

 1745. In 1756 Kramer published at Vienna a modest Elenchus of the 

 plants and animals of Lower Austria, and J. D. Petersen produced at 

 Altona in 1766 a Verzeichniss halthisclier Vogel ; while in 1791 J. B. 

 Fischer's Versuch einer Naturgeschichte von Livland appeared at Konigs- 

 berg. Next year Beseke brought out at Mitau his Beytrag zur Naturge- 

 schichte der Vogel Kurlands, and in 1794 Siemssen's Handbuch of the 

 Birds of Mecklenburg was published at Rostock. But these works, 

 locally useful as they may have been, did not occupy the whole attention 

 of German ornithologists, for in 1791, Bechstein reached the second 

 volume of his Gemeinniitzige Naturgeschichte Deutschlands, treating of the 

 Birds of that country, which ended with the fourth in 1795. Of this an 

 abridged edition by the name of Ornithologisches Taschenhuch appeared in 

 1802 and 1803, with a supplement in 1812 ; while between 1805 and 

 1809 a fuller edition of the original v/as issued. Moreover in 1795 

 J. A. Naumann humbly began at Cothen a treatise on the Birds of the 

 principality of Anhalt, which on its comjsletion in 1804 was found to 

 have swollen into an ornithology of Northern Germany and the neigh- 

 bouring countries. Eight supplements were successively published be- 

 tween 1805 and 1817, and in 1822 a new edition was required. This 

 Naturgeschichte der Vogel Deutschlands, being almost wholly re-written by 

 his son J. F. Naumann, is by far the best thing of the kind as yet pro- 

 duced in any country. The fulness and accuracy of the text combined 

 with the neat beauty of its coloured plates, have gone far to promote the 

 study of Ornithology in Germany, and while essentially a popular work, 

 since it is suited to the comprehension of all readers, it is throughout 

 written with a simple dignity that commends it to the serious and 

 scientific. Its twelfth and last volume was published in 1844 — by no 

 means too long a period for so arduous and honest a performance, — and a 

 supplement was begun in 1847 ; but, the author dying in 1857, this 

 continuation was finished in 1860 by the joint efforts of J. H. Blasius and 

 Baldamus. In 1800 Borkhausen with others commenced at Darmstadt a 

 Teutsche Ornithologie in folio which appeared at intervals till 1812, and 

 remains unfinished, though a reissue of the portion published took place 

 between 1837 and 1841. 



Other countries on the Continent, though not quite so prolific as 

 Germany, bore some ornithological fruit at this period ; but in all 

 Southern Europe only four faunal products can be named : — the Saggio di 

 Storia Naturale Bresciana of Pilati, published at Brescia in 1769 ; the 

 Grnitologia dell' Eurcpa Meridionale of Bernini, published at Parma 

 between 1772 and 1776 ; the Uccelli di Sardegna of Cetti, published at 

 Sassari in 1776; and the Romana Ornithologia oi Gilius, published at 

 Rome in 1781 — the last being in great part devoted to Pigeons and 

 Poultry. More appeared in the North, for in 1770 Amsterdam sent forth 

 the beginning of Nozeman's Nedcrlandsche Vogelen, a fairly -illustrated 

 work in folio, but only completed by Houttuyn in 1829, and in Scan- 

 dinavia most of all was done. In 1746 the great Linnaeus had produced 

 a Fauna Svecicco, of which a second edition appeared in 1761, and a third 

 revised by Retzius in 1800. In 1764 Briinuich published at Copenhagen 



