NAUMANN is but a name to nine out of ten British ornithologists, 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 to the like acquaintance. The elder Naumann, Johann Andreas, seems hardly ever to have quitted the little village of Ziebigk, near Cothen, in the duchy of Anhalt, where he was born in 1744, the son of a small landed proprietor, to whose estate he succeeded. He has left a curious autobiographical sketch, which was prefixed to the first volume of the edition of the joint work of himself and his son, Johann Friedrich, published in 1822. If ever a man devoted himself to the observation and study of birds it was this Johann Andreas, who from his boyhood passed days and nights in this sole pursuit. How he found time to take a wife-for he tells us that he often forgot his dinner-is marvellous; but marry he did, and had three sons, the eldest, Johann Friedrich, already named, born in 1780, and two others; one of them, Carl Andreas, born in 1786, became a fair assistant to his father and brother, without, however, publishing anything on his own account. The father brought up these three boys to follow his own tastes and live his own life. A gun was put into their hands as soon as they could hold it, the} were made familiar with every device for catching birds, and they were also taught to draw. In this last respect the eldest attained so much proficiency that by the time he was fifteen he had executed a great number of drawings of birds, which the father proceeded to have engraved on copper and to publish in folio form. The work thus produced proves to be one of the rarest in ornithological literature, if literature it may be called, seeing that not a word of letterpress accompanied the plates. Whether a complete set of them exists anywhere is uncertain, and Dr. Leverkiihn's labours seem to show that not quite a dozen more or less imperfect copies are known, though there is no room here for bibliographical details. The next thing-the father did was to bring out in small octavo the first volume of what was called “A Detailed Description of the Forest-, Field-, and Water-birds of the Principality of Anhalt and the Neighbouring Districts.” This appeared in 1797, and was illustrated by coloured figures by the son Johann Friedrich. Some of them are reproductions of those in the older series, but the style of drawing was manifestly improved, and, moreover, went on improving as the work itself did, for it quite outgrew the bounds of its native principality, and the fourth and last volume, published in 1803, appeared as “The Natural History of the Land- and Water-birds of Northern Germany and the Adjoining Countries.” This was followed by a series of eight supplements, the last of which came out in 1817. A remarkable feature of this work is its extreme simplicity and truth, and the absence of all scientific pretence. There is not even a Latin name in it! Yet there was no attempt by “writing down” to gain popularity, and whether it became popular is doubtful. All that can be said is that copies are now not easily to be had. In England when a man tries to do a thing of this kind we know too well what is generally the lamentable result. He makes a fool of himself on almost every page; but this is just what Johann Andreas did not. He wrote with quiet dignity from his own knowledge, and his knowledge was sound. There was no need for him to borrow from anybody else.