Recently published Ornithological Works. 459 



only assume their full dress during the pairing-season. It 

 would seem that the fully adult plumage of the male^ after 

 having been once assumed, is never cast off again. This is 

 certainly the case in M. cyaneus, and appears to be so in 

 other species. 



87. Pelzeln on the History of the Bird Collection at Vienna. 



[Geschichte der Saugethier- und Vogel-Sammlung des k. k. natur- 

 historischen Hofmuseums. Von August von Pelzeln. Annalen k. k. 

 naturh. Hofmus. v. Heft 4, 1890.] 



Herr v. Pelzeln gives us here a very useful and interesting 

 account of the history of the collections of Mammals and 

 Birds belonging to the Vienna Museum, well known as one of 

 the principal museums of Europe, and of which the proper 

 title, under its new organization, is now the " Imperial 

 Royal Court-Museum of Natural History.^' It was com- 

 menced in 1794, when the Emperor Francis the Second 

 purchased of Joseph Natterer, his Falconer, a series of 

 native mammals and birds, and gave him orders to make it 

 as complete a collection of the Mammals and Birds of the 

 Austrian Empire as possible. Joseph Natterer, Jr., suc- 

 ceeded his father as Gustos of the Bird-collection in 1810. 

 He was the elder brother of Johann Natterer, probably the 

 best and most successful collector of birds that has ever 

 lived, who was made " Custos-adjunct " to Joseph Natterer 

 in 1835, after his return from his celebrated expedition to 

 Brazil. Johann Natterer died in 1843, and his brother Josef 

 in 1851, after which Heck el was Gustos of the Ornithological 

 Gollection until his death in 1857, when he was followed 

 by Herr v. Pelzeln, who on his recent retirement was suc- 

 ceeded by Dr. L. v. Lorenz. 



Herr v. Pelzeln enumerates the various additions to the 

 Ornithological Gollection from its foundation to the present 

 day, mentioning all the more important acquisitions, amongst 

 which the most noteworthy, perhaps, are the series of 

 Latham's types from the " Museum Leverianum" purchased 

 in London in 1806, and the great Brazilian Collection of 

 Johann Natterer. 



