Hummingbirds and birds of paradise were two major figures which dominated the pages natural history in Europe between eighteenth nineteenth centuries. A hummingbird occurs in South America. This rare bird of minute size only weighs few grams. It beats its wings at rate several dozens times per second producing humming sounds. It feeds on nectar and is sometimes mistaken for an insect.

Birds, the dominating figure of all the animals discussed in the present works, have always allured the eye of artists with their colorful display of feathers. In the seventeenth century, when explorations and expeditions were successfully carried out, people began to show growing interest in exotic birds from the tropics, America and the West Indies; the publication of numerous illustrated books on birds, the establishment of breeding farms and zoological parks, and a remarkable advance in ornithology were greatest contribution of the time, and people now had more opportunities to have a closer look at these rare birds. The rapid progress in copper-plate engraving contributed to the minute illustration of bird feathers. This work by Lesson was widely acclaimed in nineteenth-century France.

Lesson was born in Rochefort in 1794 and died in 1849. Precociously talented in natural history, he collected the region's native trees and flora. After entering the naval medical school at Rochefort at the age of fifteen, he participated in a number of expeditions. It was during the exploration directed by Duperrey that Lesson boarded the ship la Coquille as doctor and amassed a variety of specimens in Peru, Chile and the Malouines. On his return home, he received the Legion d'honneur and contributed to the publication of the log book of la Coquille. He briefly returned to his birthplace to seek refuge from the Revolution de Juillet (1830), but he won greater respect in his remaining years.

・Illustration pages

・A full facsimile is available at IPA web site