158 Paul Leverkuhn : The Ornithological 



by several circumstances, such as, for example, inundations, 

 pernicious enough for the peasants, but useful for the birds 1 

 friends. The rich collections of birds formed by the father 

 and his two sons formed the basis of their keen investiga- 

 tions, valuable and conclusive up to our own day. In the 

 little castle of Cötheii most of their " types " are yet to be 

 seen, one of the Anhalt Dukes having protected the great 

 naturalist, whose high merit he recognized, and in this 

 manner some of the Naumann relics have been preserved. 



But there was more ! When paying a visit to the sanc- 

 tuary of Ziebigk in 1904 for accomplishing my biographic 

 and bibliographic notes for the new third edition of the 

 Naumanns' gigantic work, I discovered in an old forgotten 

 wooden cupboard of rude handiwork a large quantity of 

 folded, dusty papers, much eaten and pierced by worms. The 

 ornithological letters written to and from Johann Friedrich 

 Naumann had slept there undisturbed for a hundred years. 

 Even the first glance in the late hours of night gave me an idea 

 of the importance of my discovery, the famous names of our 

 greatest authorities in ornithology appearing before my eyes. 

 As the granddaughter of the author was kind enough to 

 entrust me with these precious paj>ers for scientific purposes, 

 I began to study them directly on my return to Sophia. 

 Letters dating from the beginning of the nineteenth or from 

 the end of the eighteenth century are quite different from 

 those of the present day. At that time people had more 

 leisure, were not over-excited, did not know electricity, the 

 telephone, or the telegraph, and they related interesting 

 items to their friends in a form which to-day would be 

 suitable only if destined for the printer. As the means of 

 communication were very primitive, much time elapsed 

 between two letters from the same person, but it was due to 

 this that a correspondence acquired the character of a quiet 

 current, never over-hurried or accidentally interrupted. I 

 mention this because many people of our time condemn the 

 publishing of letters " not written for publication." Well, 

 there are letters and letters. Not every one is worth print- 

 ing ; but letters giving details on scientific matters, replies 

 to questions of striking interest, or tales about voyages to 

 foreign places — about which, perhaps, little had been known — 



