The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Bechstein, Johann Matthäus

BECHSTEIN, Johann Matthäus, a German ornithologist and forester, born in Waltershausen, Saxe-Gotha, July 11, 1757, died in 1822. Having visited the most celebrated hunting grounds of Germany, he opened at Kemnate a school of forestry, and became in 1800 the director of the Saxe-Meiningen academy of forestry. His principal works are Gemeinnützige Naturgeschichte Deutschlands (4 vols., Leipsic, 1789-'95; 2d ed., 1801-'9), and Naturgeschichte der Stubenvögel (4th ed., Halle, 1840).