BELON 43 



are believed to have been copied from Barbaro's 

 drawings. 



Belon's History of Birds is the most important of his 

 contributions to natural history, and was during many- 

 years the best book on the subject. It is a handsome 

 folio of near 400 pages, illustrated by many hand- 

 coloured woodcuts, one as a rule to each bird that is 

 described. About two hundred birds are included; they 

 are nearly all European, but Belon does not hesitate to 

 describe with them such foreigners as the ibis, the birds 

 of paradise, and parrots. In his preface he claims to be 

 the first to give " naif portraicts des serpents, des 

 poissons et des oyseaux : le naturel desquels nul autre 

 n'auroit encor fait voir avant nous." ^ His draughts- 

 man was Pierre Goudet, of Paris, whose work does not 

 fully deserve the praise that it receives from Belon. The 

 attitudes are often awkward, and the markings of the 

 plumage are but poorly shown. This was no doubt 

 contrary to the author's intention, for he says in his 

 preface that birds differ from one another chiefly in 

 colour ; " touts ont quasi les iambes, ongles, bee et 

 plumes de mesmes," which is, of course, far too strong a 

 statement of the case. There is little to mark the scale 

 of the different birds ; the ostrich and the sparrowhawk, 

 for instance, are nearly of a size. The descriptions are 

 unmethodical, and often very slight. Belon is not aware 

 that a small difference, if constant, may serve to dis- 

 tinguish one species from another, and the current 

 popular names (in French) are precise enough for all his 

 purposes. Yet he distinguishes a good many kinds or 

 sorts of birds, and brings together all that seem to him 

 generally similar in structure and mode of life. He 

 does his best to amuse his readers by relating bits of his 



^Gesner's bird figures were published in the same year (1550). 



