80 STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



We have already mentioned the entomological works 

 of Schaeffer, which might with equal propriety be 

 classed in the present enumeration ; for though their 

 author admitted genera, he rejected specific names, 

 and described his insects in the obsolete style of the 

 early entomologists. The volume of Duhamel, upon 

 Ichthyology, is now chiefly valuable for its figures : 

 while those of Sonnerat*, wherein a large number of 

 Indian birds are tolerably described, but wretchedly 

 figured, are of little use ; there are no determinate or 

 scientific names ; and the descriptions puzzle, rather 

 than assist, the ornithologist. Sonnini f, one of the 

 engineer officers of the French army in Egypt, is 

 chiefly known, as a naturalist, by the edition of 

 Buffon which bears his name. It is the most copious 

 we have seen, and the best ; being enriched with 

 many original observations of the author made upon 

 the spot upon the birds of Cayenne. In his Egyp- 

 tian narrative, which was translated into English, 

 will be found descriptions and figures of many of 

 the new fish of the Nile. 



(35.) But the greatest ornithologist of this school 

 is the celebrated Le Vaillant, an enthusiastic tra- 



* Sonnerat. (1.) Voyage a la Nouvelle Guinee. Paris, 1776. 

 (2.) Voyage aux Indes Orientales et a la Chine, depuis 1774 

 jusqu'en 1781. Paris, 1782. 2 vols. 4to. 



f C. S. Sonnini. (1.) Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux, par 

 Le Clerc de Buffon. Ouvrage formant une Ornithologie com- 

 plete, par C. S. Sonnini. The editor has been at considerable 

 labour in adding all the synonyms and Latin names. Paris, 

 An. XII. (1798, &c.) 28 vols. 8vo. (2.) Voyage dans la 

 Haute et Basse Egypte. Paris, 1799. 3 vols. 8vo., and atlas 

 of plates. 



