Louis Pierre Vieillot (10 May 1748, Yvetot – 24 August 1830, Sotteville-lès-Rouen) 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 ...

. Vieillot is the author of the first scientific descriptions and Linnaean names of a number of birds, including species he collected himself in the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...

and

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...

and South American species discovered but not formally named by Félix de Azara and his translator Sonnini de Manoncourt. He was among the first ornithologists to study changes in

plumage Plumage ( "feather") is a layer of feathers that covers a bird and the pattern, colour, and arrangement of those feathers. The pattern and colours of plumage differ between species and subspecies and may vary with age classes. Within species, ...

and one of the first to study live

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

s. At least 77 of the genera erected by Vieillot are still in use.

Biography

Vieillot was born in Yvetot. He represented his family's business interests in

Saint-Domingue Saint-Domingue () was a French colony in the western portion of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, in the area of modern-day Haiti, from 1659 to 1804. The name derives from the Spanish main city in the island, Santo Domingo, which came to ref ...

(

Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and s ...

) on

Hispaniola Hispaniola (, also ; es, La Española; Latin and french: Hispaniola; ht, Ispayola; tnq, Ayiti or Quisqueya) is an island in the Caribbean that is part of the Greater Antilles. Hispaniola is the most populous island in the West Indies, and th ...

, but fled to the United States during the Haitian rebellions that followed the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are conside ...

. On Buffon's advice, he collected material for the ''Histoire naturelle des oiseaux de l'Amérique Septentrionale,'' the first two volumes of which were published in France beginning in 1807. Vieillot returned to France for the last time in 1798, where the position created for him at the ''Bulletin des Lois'' left him sufficient leisure to continue his natural history studies. Following the death of Jean Baptiste Audebert, Vieillot saw the two parts of the "Oiseaux dorés" through to completion in 1802; his own ''Histoire naturelle des plus beaux oiseaux chanteurs de la zone torride'' appeared in 1806. Vieillot's ''Analyse d'une nouvelle Ornithologie Elémentaire'' (1816) set out a new system of ornithological classification, which he applied with slight modifications in his contributions to the ''Nouveau Dictionnaire d'Histoire Naturelle'' (1816–19). In 1820, Vieillot undertook the continuation of the ''

Tableau encyclopédique et méthodique Tableau (French for 'little table' literally, also used to mean 'picture'; tableaux or, rarely, tableaus) may refer to: Arts * ''Tableau'', a series of four paintings by Piet Mondrian titled ''Tableau I'' through to ''Tableau IV'' * '' Tableau vi ...

'', commenced by

Pierre Joseph Bonnaterre Abbé Pierre Joseph Bonnaterre (1752, Aveyron – 20 September 1804, Saint-Geniez-d'Olt) was a French zoologist who contributed sections on cetaceans, mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and insects to the '' Tableau encyclopédiqu ...

in 1790. He also published an ''Ornithologie française'' (1823–30). Vieillot was granted a government pension in the final year of his life, but died relatively unknown and in poverty. Vieillot is commemorated in the binomials of a number of birds, such as ''Lybius vieilloti'' ( Vieillot's barbet) and ''Saurothera vieilloti'' (the Puerto Rican lizard-cuckoo). Some believe that

Leach's Storm-petrel Leach's storm petrel or Leach's petrel (''Hydrobates leucorhous'') is a small seabird of the tubenose order. It is named after the British zoologist William Elford Leach. The scientific name is derived from Ancient Greek. ''Hydrobates'' is fro ...

should be named Vieillot's Storm-petrel since he was the first to obtain a specimen of the species and to describe it. He did this in the New Dictionary of Natural History, published in 1817. He described the type location as the shores of

Picardy Picardy (; Picard and french: Picardie, , ) is a historical territory and a former administrative region of France. Since 1 January 2016, it has been part of the new region of Hauts-de-France. It is located in the northern part of France. Hist ...

, "se tient sur l"Ocean."

Works

* ''Histoire naturelle des plus beaux oiseaux chanteurs de la zone torride.'' Dufour, Paris 1805. * ''Histoire naturelle des oiseaux de l'Amérique septentrionale.'' Desray, Paris 1807–1808. * ''Analyse d'une nouvelle ornithologie élémentaire.'' d'Éterville, Paris 1816. * ''Mémoire pour servir à l'histoire des oiseaux d'Europe.'' Turin 1816. * ''Ornithologie.'' Lanoe, Paris 1818. * ''Faune française ou Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière des animaux qui se trouvent en France.'' Le Vrault & Rapet, Paris, Strasbourg, Bruxelles, 1820–1830. * ''La galerie des oiseaux du cabinet d'histoire naturelle du jardin du roi.'' Aillard & Constant-Chantpie, Paris 1822–1825. * ''Ornithologie française ou Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière des oiseaux de France.'' Pelicier, Paris 1830.

References

External links

Gallica.fr: All image plates for La galerie des oiseaux
— ''the French word for 'Search' is Recherche''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Vieillot, Louis Jean Pierre French ornithologists French taxonomists French zoologists 1748 births 1830 deaths 18th-century French zoologists 19th-century French zoologists

Biography

Works

References

Further reading

External links