P E E F A C E. 



Louis-Pierre (or Louis Jean Pierre) Vieillot^ was 

 born^ say his biographers, at Yvetôt on the lOth May, 

 1748*. In early life he was in business in the island 

 of St. Domingo, where he acquired his tastes for natural 

 history. Proscribed during the Révolution, he took 

 refuge in the United States, where he amassed material 

 for his work ' Les Oiseaux de l'Amérique septentrionale,'' 

 published in 1808. Some years before that date, how- 

 ever, he h ad returned to France, and had obtained a 

 small post in the Bureaux du Bulletin des Lois. In 

 conjunction with his friend Jean-Baptiste Audebert he 

 undertook the production of the descriptive portion of 

 that costly work (only 200 copies of which were issued), 

 the ' Histoire naturelle des Colibris, Oiseaux-mouches, 

 Jacamars et Promérops,' published in the year 1802. 

 In 1805 Vieillot commenced the publication, in twelve 

 parts, of the ' Histoire naturelle des plus beaux oiseaux 

 chanteurs de la zone torride.' In thèse works, gilding 

 was largely employed in the plates. Thèse expeusive 



* * Biographie des hommes vivants,' v. p. 206 (Paris, 1819). See 

 also Atjdebekt, in the ' Biographie Universelle,' iii. p. 20 (Paris, 

 1811) ; and ' Nouvelle Biographie Universelle,' iii. p. 698 (Paris, 1853). 

 Consult also Swainson's " Bibliography of Zoology," in Lardner's 

 ' Cabinet Encyclopfedia,' p. 364 (1840). 



