Chapter II: Preface: TO GERMAN EDITION, v

PREFATORY NOTE TO THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION, vii

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY BY THE EDITOR, xv

THE BIRD-BERGS OF LAPLAND.

The legend of Scandinavia’s origin--The harvest of the sea--The
doves of Scandinavia--Eider-holms and bird-bergs--The nesting of the
eider-duck--Razor-bills and robber-gulls--Millions of birds--(Notes,
pp. 565-566), 33

THE TUNDRA AND ITS ANIMAL LIFE.

High tundra and low tundra--The jewels of the tundra--The flora of the
tundra--The Arctic fox--The lemming--The reindeer--The birds of the
tundra--Mosquitoes--(Notes, pp. 566-568), 63

THE ASIATIC STEPPES AND THEIR FAUNA.

The steppe in summer and in winter--The coming of spring--The
rendezvous in the reeds--The marsh-harrier--The home of larks--Jerboa
and souslik--The archar sheep--The kulan and the ancestry of the
horse--(Notes, pp. 568-571), 86

THE FORESTS AND SPORT OF SIBERIA.

An ice-wilderness or not--The forest zone--Axe and fire--The
pines--Hunting and trapping--The elk, the wolf, and the lynx--Sable
and other furred beasts--Bear-hunting and bear-stories--(Notes, pp.
571-573), 120

THE STEPPES OF INNER AFRICA.

The progress of the seasons--A tropical thunderstorm--Night in
the steppes--Spiders, scorpions, and snakes--Mudfish and other
sleepers--Cleopatra’s asp--Geckos--The children of the air--The
bateleur eagle--The ostrich--The night-jar--The mammals of the
steppe--Stampede before a steppe-fire--(Notes, pp. 573-576), 168

THE PRIMEVAL FORESTS OF CENTRAL AFRICA.

Spring in the forest--The beautiful Hassanie--The baobab--Climbers and
twiners--The forest birds and their voices--Sociable birds--Conjugal
tenderness--Salt’s antelope--River monsters--A rain-lake--Hosanna in
the highest--(Notes, pp. 576-578), 201

MIGRATIONS OF MAMMALS.

Black rats and brown--Cousin man’s kindness to the monkeys--Migration
of mountain animals--The restlessness of the reindeer--Wandering herds
of buffaloes--The life of the kulan--Travellers by sea--Flights of
bats--The march of the lemmings--(Notes, pp. 578-581), 234

LOVE AND COURTSHIP AMONG BIRDS.

Are birds automata?--The battles of love--Different modes of
courtship--Polygamy--Life-long devotion--(Notes, p. 581), 259

APES AND MONKEYS.

Sheikh Kemal’s story--The monkey question--A general picture of monkey
life--Marmosets and other New World monkeys--Dog-like and man-like Old
World monkeys--Monkeys as pets--The true position of monkeys--(Notes,
pp. 581-583), 282

DESERT JOURNEYS.

An appreciation of the desert--The start of the caravan--The character
of the camel--A day’s journey--Oases--Simoom and sand storms--Fata
morgana--The peace of night--(Note, p. 583), 318

NUBIA AND THE NILE RAPIDS.

Egypt and Nubia contrasted--Wady Halfa and Philæ--The three great
cataracts--Journey up and down stream--The Nile boatmen--History of
Nubia--(Notes, pp. 583-584), 356

A JOURNEY IN SIBERIA.

Russian hospitality--A tedious journey--An excursion into Chinese
territory--Sport among the mountains--Journeying northwards--On the
track of splenic fever--(Notes, p. 584), 390

THE HEATHEN OSTIAKS.

Racial affinities--Christians and heathen--The dress of the
Ostiaks--The tshum of the wandering Ostiaks--The life of the
herdsmen--A fishing village--The Ostiak at the fair--An Ostiak
wedding--An interview with a Shaman--Funeral rites--(Notes, pp.
584-585), 416

NOMAD HERDSMEN AND HERDS OF THE STEPPES.

The name Kirghiz--Conditions of life on the steppe--Winter
dwellings--Breaking up the camp--In praise of the yurt--The herds
of the Kirghiz--The Kirghiz horse--Summer wanderings--“A sheep’s
journey”--Returning flocks--Evening in the aul--(Note, p. 585), 451

FAMILY AND SOCIAL LIFE AMONG THE KIRGHIZ.

The Kirghiz as horsemen--Racing and wrestling--Hunting with eagles and
greyhounds--A sheep-drive--The “red tongue”--Kirghiz bards--Education
and character--Kirghiz etiquette--The price of a bride--The
children--Funeral ceremonies, 482

COLONISTS AND EXILES IN SIBERIA.

Mistaken impressions--Impartial observation--The emancipation of the
serfs--The Altai--Compulsory service--Condition of the peasants--The
superabundant harvest--Romance in Siberia--Domestic life open
to the convicts--The way of sighs--General picture of Siberian
life--Runaways--(Notes, pp. 585-586), 510

AN ORNITHOLOGIST ON THE DANUBE.

Twenty eyries--The voyage down the river--The woods on the banks--A
heronry--Sea-eagles--A paradise of birds--The marsh of Hullo--The black
vultures of Fruškagora--Homeward once more--(Note, p.586), 540

INDEX, 587

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

FIG. Page

PORTRAIT OF ALFRED EDMUND BREHM, _Frontispiece_.

1. Scene on the Sogne Fjord, Norway, 35

2. Colony of Eider-ducks, 44

3. The Bird-bergs of Lapland, 51

4. Razor-bills, 61

5. The High Tundra in Northern Siberia, 65

6. Peregrine Falcons and Lemmings, 70

7. The White or Arctic Fox (_Canis lagopus_), 73

8. The Reindeer (_Tarandus rangifer_), 76

9. Skuas, Phalathrope, and Golden Plovers, 80

10. View in the Asiatic Steppes, 89

11. A Salt Marsh in the Steppes, 90

12. A Herd of Horses during a Snowstorm on the Asiatic Steppes, 94

13. Lake Scene and Waterfowl in an Asiatic Steppe, 99

14. The Souslik (_Spermophilus citillus_), 108

15. The Jerboa (_Alactaga jaculus_), 108

16. Archar Sheep or Argali (_Ovis Argali_), 111

17. Pallas’s Sand-grouse (_Syrrhaptes paradoxus_), 113

18. The Kulan (_Equus hemionus_), 118

19. Reindeer Flocking to Drink, 133

20. Elk and Black-cock in a Siberian Forest, 137

21. The Maral Stag, 145

22. The Elk Hunter--A Successful Shot, 148

23. A Siberian Method of Wolf-shooting, 153

24. Sable and Hazel-grouse in a Siberian Forest, 159

25. The Bed of an Intermittent River, Central Africa, 175

26. Hills of African Termites, or White Ants, 179

27. Secretary-bird and Aspis, 184

28. On an Ostrich Farm in South Africa, 190

29. Hyæna-dogs pursuing Antelope, 196

30. Zebras, Quaggas, and Ostriches flying before a Steppe Fire, 199

31. The Baobab Tree, Central Africa, 211

32. Long-tailed Monkeys, 222

33. Salt’s Antelope (_Antilope Saltiana_), 224

34. Crocodile and Crocodile-birds (_Pluxianus ægyptius_), 228

35. A Wild Duck defending her Brood from a Brown Rat, 236

36. A Herd of American Bison or Buffalo, 243

37. Wild Horses crossing a River during a Storm, 246

38. Flying Foxes, 251

39. Springbok Antelopes, 258

40. The Strutting of the Tragopan in Pairing-time, 269

41. Cock Chaffinches Fighting, 274

42. Entellus Monkeys (_Semnopithecus Entellus_), 285

43. Common Marmoset or Ouistiti (_Hapale Jacchus_), 292

44. Red Howling Monkeys (_Mycetis seniculus_), 295

45. Old Baboon Rescuing Young One, 301

46. Macaque or Bonnet-monkey (_Macacus sinicus_) and Snake, 307

47. The Hoolock (_Hylobates leuciscus_), one of the Gibbons, 310

48. Chimpanzee (_Troglodytes niger_), 313

49. Caravan in the African Desert, 323

50. An Encampment in the Sahara, 328

51. Gazelles lying near a Mimosa, 332

52. An Oasis in the Desert of Sahara, 343

53. Band of Mounted Bedouins, 353

54. An Egyptian _Sakieh_ or Water-wheel, 365

55. A Nubian Village on the Nile, 374

56. Nubian Children at Play, 377

57. A Passage through the Nile Rapids, 385

58. A Post Station in Siberia, 395

59. Imperial Eagle, Marmot, and Souslik, 407

60. An Ostiak Settlement on the Banks of the Obi, 409

61. Huts and Winter Costume of the Christian Ostiaks, 419

62. “Heathen” Ostiaks, Reindeer, and Tshums, 424

63. Ostiaks with Reindeer and Sledge, 427

64. Interior of an Ostiak Dwelling (Tshum), 435

65. The Burial of an Ostiak, 449

66. The Home of a Wealthy Kirghiz, 455

67. Life among the Kirghiz--the Return from the Chase, 461

68. Kirghiz with Camels, 467

69. Kirghiz and their Herds on the March in the Mountains, 471

70. Kirghiz Aul, or Group of Tents, 478

71. Hunting the Wolf with the Golden Eagle, 487

72. Kirghiz in pursuit of Wild Sheep, 489

73. Frolic at a Kirghiz Wedding, 505

74. Miners in the Altai returning from Work, 517

75. Exiles on the Way to Siberia, 527

76. Interior of a Siberian Peasant’s Dwelling, 532

77. Types of Siberian Convicts--“Condemned to the Mines”, 535

78. Flight of an Exile in Siberia, 538

79. Herons and their Nests, 544

80. Rooks and their Nests, 546

81. Sea-eagles and Nest in a Danube Forest, 550

82. Nest of the Penduline Titmouse (_Parus Pendulinus_), 562

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

BY J. ARTHUR THOMSON.

BREHM’S PLACE AMONG NATURALIST-TRAVELLERS.

Though Brehm’s lectures might well be left, as his son has said, to speak for themselves, it seems useful to introduce them in their English dress with some notes on the evolution of the naturalist-traveller and on Brehm’s place in the honourable list; for an adequate appreciation of a book like this depends in part on a recognition of the position it occupies among analogous works, and on having some picture of the illustrious author himself.

In sketching the history of the naturalist-traveller it is not necessary to go very far back; for though it is interesting to recall how men of old followed their migrating herds, as the Lapp or Ostiak does his reindeer, and were led by them to fresh fields and new conquests, or how others followed the salmon down the rivers and became the toilers of the sea, this ancient lore is full of uncertainty, and is, besides, of more moment to the sociologist than to the naturalist. What we attempt here is merely to indicate the various types of naturalist-traveller who have in the course of time succeeded one another in the quest for the new.

I.

The foundations of zoology were laid by Aristotle some three hundred years before Christ, but they remained unbuilt on for nearly eighteen centuries. Here and there some enthusiast strove unaided, but only a fragmentary superstructure was reared. In fact, men were pre-occupied with tasks of civilization more serious than the prosecution of zoology, though that is not trivial. Gradually, however, great social movements, such as the Crusades and the collapse of Feudalism; great intellectual and emotional movements, such as those of the Renaissance; great inventions, such as that of printing, gave new life to Europe, and zoology shared in the re-awakening. Yet the natural history of the Middle Ages was in great part mystical; fancy and superstition ran riot along paths where science afterwards established order, and, for all practical purposes, the history of zoology, apart from the efforts of a few pioneers, may be said to date from the sixteenth century.

Now, one indubitable factor in the scientific renaissance of the sixteenth century was the enthusiasm of the early travellers, and this stimulus, periodically recurrent, has never failed to have a similar effect--of giving new life to science. But while science, and zoology as a branch of it, has been evolving during the last three centuries, the traveller, too, has shared in the evolution. It is this which we wish to trace.