LE VAILLAN'T AXD HIS WORKS. 39 



ary 1785. His first care was to arrange his cabinet, 

 and prepare his journals for publication. He added 

 a numerous list of animals, insects, and, above all, 

 birds, to the then recognised species, and was the 

 first to make the giraffe known in Europe. Be- 

 fore this time there had been only imperfect 

 descriptions of it ; Le Vaillant brought from 

 Africa the one which was placed in the royal col- 

 lection of Paris. In addition to his Travels, he 

 published the " Natural History of the Birds of 

 Africa ;" which was followed by four other volumes 

 on Parrots, Birds of Paradise, Cotingas, and Calaos. 

 He had seen almost all the species he described in 

 their native haunts, and his portraits are from the 

 life. Like so many men of distinction and of 

 science, Le Vaillant suffered under the terrible 

 scourge of the French Kevolution. He was incar- 

 cerated, and narrowly escaped the guillotine ; in 

 fact, he was only saved by the opportune death of 

 Robespierre. After his liberation, he retired to a 

 small property which he possessed at La Neve, 

 near Lauzun ; and there, except at brief intervals 

 when he was obliged to visit Paris to superintend 

 the publication of his works, he spent the remain- 

 ing thirty years of his life. It was not to be ex- 

 pected that works brought out upon so expensive 

 a scale should reimburse their author, still less that 

 they should become a source of profit. Le Vail- 



