P E E F A C E. 
Louis-Pierre (or Louis Jean Pierre) Vieillot, was 
born, say his biographers, at Yvetot on the 10th May, 
1748'^. In early life he was in business in the island 
of St. Domingo, where he acquired his tastes for natural 
history. Proscribed during the Revolution, he took 
refuge in the United States, where he amassed material 
for his work ^ Les Oiseaux de TAmerique septentrionale,'' 
published in 1808. Some years before that date, how- 
ever, he bad returned to France, and had obtained a 
small post in the Bureaux du Bulletin des Lois. In 
conjunction with his friend Jean-Baptiste Audebert he 
undertook the production of the descriptive portion of 
that costly work (only 200 copies of which were issued), 
the ' Histoire naturelle des Colibris, Oiseaux-mouches, 
Jacamars et Promerops,^ published in the year 1802. 
In 1805 Vieillot commenced the publication, in twelve 
parts, of the ' Histoire naturelle des plus beaux oiseaux 
chanteurs de la zone torride.' In these works, gilding 
was largely employed in the plates. These expensive 
* ' Biographie des hommes vivants,' v. p. 206 (Paris, 1819). See 
also Audebert, in the ' Biograpliie Universelle/ iii. p. 20 (Paris, 
1811) ; and ' Nouvelle Biographie Universelle,' iii. p. 598 (Paris, 1853). 
Consult also Swainson's " Bibliography of Zoology," in Lardner's 
' Cabinet Encyclopaedia,' p. 364 (1840). 
