Baron Nöel Frédéric Armand André de Lafresnaye (24 July 1783 – 14 July 1861) was a French

ornithologist Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...

and collector. Lafresnaye was born into an aristocratic family at Chateau de La Fresnaye in

Falaise Falaise may refer to: Places * Falaise, Ardennes, France * Falaise, Calvados, France ** The Falaise pocket was the site of a battle in the Second World War * La Falaise, in the Yvelines ''département'', France * The Falaise escarpment in Quebe ...

, Normandy. He took an early interest in natural history, particularly

entomology Entomology () is the science, scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such ...

. It was only after acquiring a collection of European birds that he turned his attention to ornithology. Lafresnaye described a number of new bird species, some with

Alcide d'Orbigny Alcide Charles Victor Marie Dessalines d'Orbigny (6 September 1802 – 30 June 1857) was a French naturalist who made major contributions in many areas, including zoology (including malacology), palaeontology, geology, archaeology and anthrop ...

. He accumulated a collection of over 8,000 bird skins at his home. After his death the collection was purchased by the American collector Henry Bryant and donated to the Boston Natural History Society. It was transferred to the

Museum of Comparative Zoology A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

in 1914. Lafresnaye's piculet,

Lafresnaye's woodcreeper Lafresnaye's woodcreeper (''Xiphorhynchus guttatus guttatoides'') is a resident passerine bird found in tropical South America in the western and southern Amazon and adjacent sections of the Cerrado. It is often considered a subspecies of the b ...

and Lafresnaye's vanga are avian species that bear his name.

Selected works

* ''Contributions à l'ornithologie'', 1832 - Contributions to ornithology. * ''Catalogue des oiseaux de la collection de feu Mr. le bon. de Lafresnaye de Falaise'', 1833 - Catalog of birds from the collection of Lafresnaye. * ''Essai d'une nouvelle manière de grouper les genres et les espèces de l'ordre des passereaux (Passeres L.) d'après leurs rapports de moeurs et d'habitation'', 1838 - Essay on a new method of grouping the genera and species of the order

Passeriformes A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by t ...

, etc. * ''Monographie du genre Dendrocolaptes'', 1849 - Monograph on the genus

Dendrocolaptes ''Dendrocolaptes'' is a genus of Neotropical birds in the Dendrocolaptinae subfamily. The genus was introduced by the French naturalist Johann Hermann in 1804. The type species was subsequently designated as the Amazonian barred woodcreeper (' ...

. * ''Sur quelques espèces d'oiseaux nouveaux ou peu connus du Chili et de la Colombie'', 1855 - On some new, little known avian species of

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

and

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

.WorldCat Search
(publications)

References

1783 births 1861 deaths People from Falaise, Calvados 19th-century French zoologists French ornithologists {{Ornithologist-stub