Like most other old authors, Peter Belon takes some time before he can get fairly under weigh. There are, first, the dedication to the most Christian king--Henry the Second of the name--whose humble scholar the author declares himself to be. Then follows a homily addressed to the reader, chiefly for the purpose of assuring him that, in the lively portraits of the birds which he presents (Ah, could we but reproduce some of them!), he is not practising on his credulity, but that, such as he represents them, the fowls are themselves, and that, where he cannot get an authentic likeness he has refused to invent one. The royal privilege to publish, sealed with yellow wax--like a bottle of good old wine--comes next, and finally appear several copies of verses in praise of the author, by certain of his friends, which latter had better be skipped, that Peter Belon’s volume, which has in it a great deal that is worth reading, may unfold its pages for our gratification. It is not, however, a resumé of the work, or anything like it, that I intend to make, but simply a dip into it--here and there--extending some of the quaint fancies, curious digressions, and sound opinions with which it is interspersed, always desiring our reader to bear in mind that the author was a physician as well as a naturalist. A word or two, before he fairly enters on his theme, may be allowed him to describe the pains he was in the habit of taking to obtain correct information. “It was my custom,” he says, “during my sojourn in Padua, to go down the Brenta every Thursday evening, voyaging all night in order to reach Venice on Friday morning, and to remain there on Saturday and Sunday, as much for the convenience of seeing birds as well as fishes; and after having conferred with fowlers and fishermen, to return from thence on Sunday evening, thus losing no time by taking the night-boat, and being ready to continue my studies on Monday morning. During which time, on the aforesaid days of Friday and Saturday, there was not a single fowler or fisherman who did not bring to show me every rare creature he had been able to procure.”