157 



THE 



ORNITHOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCE of the LATE 

 PROFESSOR JOHANN FRIEDRICH NAUMANN. 



By Paul Leverkühn. 



(Les Correspondances Ornithologiques du Professeur Fréd. Naumann, 



Présentation de lettres de Temminck, Boie, Brehm, Kaup, Bechstein. 



Gloger, Bruch, and others.) 



Ladies and Gentlemen, 



Naumann is but a name to nine out of ten British, orni- 

 thologists, and the proportion of them who have held in 

 hand a volume with that name on the title page must be 

 smaller still. Yet it was borne by two men who, taking 

 them all round, were the most practical ornithologists that 

 ever lived — for their personal knowledge of the birds of 

 Central Europe was not exceeded by that of any of their 

 contemporaries ; and it may be fairly doubted whether any 

 of their successors, vastly improved as are the modern means 

 of acquiring such knowledge, have attained as high a standard. 

 With these emphatic words the venerable Professor Alfred 

 Newton began a short article about the Naumann festival at 

 Cöthen, which took place in the first days of the month of 

 May this year. Fortunately, the very modest abode of the 

 Naumanns has remained from generation to generation in 

 the hands of the family ; the old cottages in which Johann 

 Andreas and Johann Friedrich Naumann produced their 

 wonderful standard works having been succeeded by others 

 of richer and of more modern style ; the famous little forest 

 near Ziebigk remains unaltered to this day, and conceals the 

 melancholy grave of the father Naumann, which is covered 

 by a mass of luxurious ivy, and ornamented with an eagle of 

 bronze, opening his mighty wings against intruders. In this 

 forest the Naumanns observed the feathered world, favoured 



