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 

 Omithologie *, wherein he comprehends all 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 Enluminees, and, being un- 

 coloured, are less recognisable. It is curious to 

 observe a trait of littleness in the mind of this 

 otherwise estimable writer, which clearly shows the 

 feelings of jealousy, if not of hostility, with which 

 the writings of Linnaeus 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 Linnaeus, 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 Regne Anima] ? divise en 9 

 Classes. Paris, 1756. 1 vol. 4to. (2.) Ornithologie ; ou, 

 Methode contenant la Division des Oiseaux, en Ordies, &c. 

 Paris, 1760. 6 vols. 4 to. (8.) Ornithologia, sive Synopsis 

 Methodica sistens Avium, &c. Lugd. Bat. 1762. 2 vols. 8vo. 



