Letters, Extracts, Notices, fyc. 269 



father, between 1839 and 1859, he cultivated the land to 

 which he had succeeded. He then entered the public 

 service and was employed in special missions for the 

 governor of Radorn, where he was entrusted with the forma- 

 tion of a collection of the animals of the Palatinates of 

 Lublin and Radom, as the Government had intended to place 

 similar collections in the chief places of each Palatinate. 

 But this intention was not carried out. In 1855 Taczanowski 

 was appointed Conservator of the Zoological Museum of 

 Warsaw and remained in that post until his death. 



Prom his childhood Taczanowski was distinguished by his 

 love for the study of nature ; the habits of birds above all 

 interested him. At first, for want of other materials, he 

 devoted himself to the study of the ornithological fauna of 

 the kingdom of Poland, especially of the Palatinates of 

 Lublin, Radom, and Augustovo. His transference to 

 Warsaw enabled him to pursue his studies with a scientific 

 method. In 1857, the directors of public education in 

 Warsaw delegated Taczanowski to proceed to Paris, where he 

 learnt the best methods of skinning and preserving animals. 



The sphere of Taczanowski's scientific studies was con- 

 siderably extended when, in 1865, Dr. Benoit Dybowski 

 (Professor of the University of Leopol) and Victor Godlewski 

 began to study Eastern Siberia, and when, in 1866, Constantin 

 Jelski established himself at Cayenne and formed, with an 

 admirable zeal and with great success, collections of the 

 representatives of the fauna of that country. All the acquisi- 

 tions made in Siberia and in Cayenne were sent to Tac- 

 zanowski, who devoted himself to the study of the ornitho- 

 logical faunas of these countries as well as to that of the 

 Araneids of Cayenne. 



In 1863, Counts Alexander and Constantine Branicky 

 made a voyage to the Upper Nile and gathered a rich 

 collection, which they presented to the Zoological Museum 

 of Warsaw. From that time the beneficent influence of the 

 Counts Branicky, especially that of Constantine, began to 

 aid the activity of Taczanowski, an influence which they 

 exercised by furnishing him with the best scientific materials 



SER. VI. — VOL. II, u 



