16 



HOW THE AUTHOR WAS LED TO 



^j* 9 



.1 ' 



For myself, I had long hailed, with all my heart, the great French 

 Revolution which had occurred in the Natural Sciences — the era of 

 Lamarck and of GeofFroy Saint-Hilaire,* so fertile in method, the 

 mighty restorers of all science. With what happiness I traced their 

 features in their legitimate sons — those ingenious children who have 

 inherited their intellect ! 





At their head let me najne the amiable and original author of the 

 " Monde des Oiseaux," -f- whom the world has long recognized as one 

 of the most solid, if not also the most amusing, of naturalists. I 

 shall refer to him more than once ; but I hasten, on the threshold of 

 my book, to pay this preliminary homage to a truly gi"eat observer, 

 who, in all that concerns his own observations, is as weighty, as 

 special, as Wilson or Audubon. 



* Jean Baptiste de Monet, Chevalier de Lamarck, was born Au^st 1, ]744; died 

 December 20, 1829. His chief work is his " History of Invertebrate Animals." — Etienne 

 Geoffrey Saint-Hilaire was horn in 1772, and died in 1844. He expounds his theory of 

 natural history in the " Philosophic Anatomique," 2 vols., 1818-20. — Translator. 



t Alphonse Toussenel, an illustrious French litterateur, born in 1803. The first edition 

 of his " Le Monde des Oiseaux, Ornithologie Passionelle," was published in 1852. — 

 Translator. 



