LE VAILLANT AND HIS WORKS. 39

ary 1780, His first care was to arrange his cabinet,
and prepare his journals for publication. He added
a numerous list of animals, insects, and, above all,
birds, to the then recognised species, and was the
first to make the giraffe known in Europe. Be-
fore this time there had been only imperfect
descriptions of it; Le Vaillant brought from
Airica the one which was placed in the royal col-
lection of Paris. in addition to his Travels, he
published the “ Natural History of the Birds of
Africa ;” which was followed by four other volumes
on Parrots, Birds of Paradise, Cotingas, and Calaos.
He had seen almost all the species he described in
their native haunts, and his portraits are from the
lite. Like so many men of distinction and of
science, Le Vaillant suffered under the terrible
scourge of the French Revolution. He was incar-
cerated, and narrowly escaped the guillotine; in
fact, he was only saved by the opportune death of
Robespierre. After his liberation, he retired to a
small property which he possessed at La Neve,
near Lauzun ; and there, except at brief intervals
when he was obliged to visit Paris to superintend
the publication of his works, he spent the remain-
ing thirty years of his life. It was not to be ex-
pected that works brought out upon so expensive
a scale should reimburse their author, still less that
they should become a source of profit. Le Vail-