FRANCIS LE VAILL^M', tTcelebrated traveller and 

 ornithologist, was born in the year 1753 at Para- 

 maribo, the chief town in Dutch Guiana, where his 

 father, a rich merchant and a native of Metz in 

 France, held at that time the office of consul. The 

 passion for foreign travel, which he evinced at a 

 very early age, was imbibed, as he himself informs 

 us, chiefly from the example of his father, who had 

 visited many parts of the world in course of his 

 commercial negociations. His taste for fowling, 

 which the extensive forests in that country enabled 

 him to gratify, even when a boy, to the utmost 

 limit of his wishes, was likewise acquired from his 

 father. 



When only ten years old, he was brought to 

 Holland; soon afterwards, he was removed with 

 the family to France ; he then spent two years in 

 Germany, and seven in Lorraine. During that 

 period his principal amusement was bird-shooting, 

 but it was not pursued as a mere recreation. It 

 turned his attention to the study of ornithology, by 



VOL. Tin. B 



