78 STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY: 
translated into German, it has never been put into 
an English dress. 
(33.) M. Reaumer, whose family and connections 
were high, besides being attached to entomology, 
possessed a very noble collection of birds, and this 
was no doubt the chief inducement to M. Brisson, 
the curator of his museum, for commencing his 
Ornithologie *, wherein he comprehends aii the 
well-authenticated species then known, whether in 
his patron’s museum, or described in books. The 
chief, and indeed the only, merit of this voluminous 
work is the extreme exactitude of the descriptions ; 
for the figures are scarcely superior in drawing to 
those of the Planches Enluminées, and, being un- 
coloured, are less recognisable. It 1s curious to 
observe a trait of dttleness in the mind of this 
otherwise estimable writer, which clearly shows the 
feelings of jealousy, if not of hostility, with which 
the writings of Linneus were then viewed in France. 
M. Brisson departs so far from the school of Buffon, 
as to arrange birds in a system of his own; and he 
even goes so far as to give them names, and specific 
characters, in Latin: but although he quotes the 
writings of Linneus, he will not even mention his 
specific names, and scarcely adopts any one of his 
genera. With all these defects, the volumes of 
Brisson are nevertheless still valuable, as containing 
minute descriptions of birds then considered new, 
* M. J. Brisson. (1.) Le Régne Anima], divisé en 9 
Classes. Paris, 1756. 1 vol. 4to. (2.) Ornithologie; ou, 
Méthode contenant la Division des Oiseaux, en Ordres, &c. 
Paris, 1760. 6 vols. 4to. (3.) Ornithologia, sive Synopsis 
Methodica sistens Avinm, &c. Lugd. Bat. 1762, 2 vols. 8vo. 
ti; 
