Sbrffte^lFlotes 



course of his work, Buffon evidently felt 

 that he must do his best. Here was a 

 bird upon which poets from the most 

 ancient times had wreaked themselves in 

 rhythmic praises. No genius had ever 

 been too great to admire it with cordial 

 enthusiasm. From Aristotle on down, 

 philosopher, historian, and bard had vied 

 with one another in writing about it. 

 Now the Intendant du Jardin du Roi and 

 member of I'Academie Franfaise settled 

 himself to outdo them all; and he did 

 outdo them. His essay is, in my humble 

 opinion, the best unscientific paper ever 

 written upon a bird. When he laid down 

 the pen there was not much left for others 

 to add in the line of his study. 



The edition of Buffon at my hand is 

 that of 1827, in forty-two volumes, in- 

 cluding the twelve by Lacepede. The 

 illustrations are interesting chiefly as re- 

 minders of the long advance made during 

 the past sixty or eighty years in the art of 

 picturing natural-history subjects. If our 

 descriptive ornithologists must still bow to 

 Buffon as a master of style, it may console 

 127 



