RISE AND PROGRESS OF ZOOLOGY. 11 



culties he must have had to contend with, he may 

 justly be considered the reviver of natural history 

 in the sixteenth century. Belon, it is true, seems 

 to have paid very little attention to Aristotle, and to 

 have been totally ignorant of the philosophy of his 

 subject; yet his arrangement, so far from being 

 despicable, is much more natural than has been 

 generally supposed : this will at once appear from 

 a glance at his system. Commencing with the land 

 birds of prey, as the vultures, falcons, shrikes, and 

 owls, he passes to the water birds of prey, as the 

 cormorant, albatross, &c. ; the wading order naturally 

 follows, and from this he proceeds to the gallinaceous 

 tribe, including the ostrich family. The two last 

 chapters are devoted to the pigeons, crows, and 

 thrushes, and all the smaller perching birds. Now 

 if we look to this arrangement, not in regard to its 

 details, but to the general character of its primary 

 groups, we have, in fact, precisely the same disposi- 

 tion as that which we now know to be the natural 

 series. Here we find the modern orders of JRaptores, 

 JYatatores, Grallatores, Rasores, and I?isesso?*es fol- 

 lowing each other in the order of their true affinities, 

 and exhibiting the circular disposition of the whole 

 feathered creation. The chief objection to Belon's 

 arrangement is to be found in his details, where he 

 places not only the plovers but the larks and bunt- 

 ings within his gallinaceous division, instead of as- 

 sociating them with his perching families. But what 

 more could be expected in the infancy of science, 

 and from the first who gave to it a definite form ? 

 In this branch of zoology, therefore, Belon must 

 be considered as much the master of Willughby, as 



