6 DICTIONARY OF BIRDS 
illustrated with woodcuts, many of which display much spirit and regard 
to accuracy. 
Belon, as has just been said, had a knowledge of the anatomy of Birds, 
and he seems to have been the first to institute a direct comparison of 
their skeleton with that of Man ; but in this respect he only anticipated 
by a few years the more precise researches of Volcher Coiter, a Frisian, 
who in 1573 and 1575 published at Nuremberg two treatises, in one of 
which the internal structure of Birds in general is very creditably de- 
scribed, while in the other the osteology and myology of certain forms is 
given in considerable detail, and illustrated by carefully-drawn figures. 
The first is entitled Hxternarum et internarum principaliwm humani corporis 
Tabule, &c., while the second, which is the most valuable, is merely 
appended to the Lectiones Gabrielis Fallopii de partibus similartbus humans 
corporis, &c., and thus, the scope of each work being regarded as medical, 
the author’s labours were wholly overlooked by the mere natural-historians 
who followed, though Coiter introduced a table, “‘ De differentits Autum,” 
furnishing a key to a rough classification of such Birds as were known to 
him, and this, as nearly the first attempt of the kind, deserves notice here. 
Contemporary with these three men was Ulysses Aldrovandus, a 
Bolognese, who wrote an Historia Natwraliwm in sixteen folio volumes, 
most of which were not printed till after his death in 1605 ; but the three 
on Birds appeared between 1599 and 1603. The work is almost wholly 
a compilation, and that not of the most discriminative kind, while a 
peculiar jealousy of Gesner is displayed throughout, though his statements 
are very constantly quoted—nearly always as those of ‘“ Ornithologus,” 
his name appearing but few times in the text, and not at all in the list of 
authors cited. With certain modifications in principle not very important, 
but characterized by much more elaborate detail, Aldrovandus adopted 
Belon’s method of arrangement, but in a few respects there is a manifest 
retrogression. The work of Aldrovandus was illustrated by copper plates, 
but none of his figures approach those of his immediate predecessors in 
character or accuracy. Nevertheless the book was eagerly sought, and 
several editions of it appeared. 
Mention must be made of a medical treatise by Caspar Schwenckfeld, 
published at Liegnitz in 1603, under the title of Theriotrophewm Stlesiz, the 
fourth book of which consists of an “ Aviarium Silesie,” and is the earliest 
of the ornithological works we now know by the name.of Fauna, The 
author was acquainted with the labours of his predecessors, as his list of 
over one hundred of them testifies. Most of the Birds he describes are 
characterized with accuracy sufficient to enable them to be identified, 
and his observations upon them have still some interest; but he was 
innocent of any methodical system, and was not exempt from most of 
the professional fallacies of his time.? 
1 The Historia Naturalis of John Johnstone or Jonston, of Scottish descent but 
by birth a Pole (Dict. Nat. Biogr. xxx. pp. 80, 81), ran through several editions 
during the seventeenth century, but is little more than an epitome of the work of 
Aldrovandus. 
* The Hierozoicon of Bochart—a treatise on the animals named in Holy Writ—was 
published in 1619. 
