M^L.'i HIST, 
PREFACE 
Anton August Heinrich Lichtenstein^ Theol. et Philos. 
Dr.^ author of the Catalogue here reproduced literatim et 
verbatim, is said to have been born in 1753 and to have 
died in 1816. At the time of his writing the present 
work he was Professor of Oriental Languages in the 
Gymnasium of Hamburgh and Rector of the Johanneum 
in the same city, being also a member of the Gesellschaft 
Naturforschender Freunde zu Berlin. Of Jewish descent 
and belonging to a family several of whom were addicted 
to scientific pursuits, Lichtenstein was from 1794 to 
1796 assistant, and from 1796 to 1798 sole keeper of the 
public library in Hamburg ; but, in the year last named, 
he was appointed to a professorship at Helmstadt. Except 
the present, no ornithological work is known to have been 
written by him; but he compiled two corresponding 
catalogues of Shells, Insects, and other specimens, and 
was the author of several zoological publications, besides 
translating into German Smellie^s ^ Philosophy of Natural 
History.' 
Notwithstanding all the investigations which have been 
most kindly made by Herr C. G. Heise and Dr. Bolau 
of Hamburg, no further information as to the collection 
catalogued in the following pages has been obtained, and 
even the name of its former owner cannot be discovered. 
The Hamburg newspapers of the year 1793 have, through 
the good offices of those gentlemen, been consulted, but 
without finding in them more on the subject than 
