Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 5 (1901).djvu/411

Rh a great rarity; then a nest of young Golden Orioles; now a Bohemian Waxwing; and again a fine male of the Great Bustard. The donation of the latter bird was a great joy to the old naturalist. He induced his friend Auranti to dissect the bird, and figured the gular pouch, "qua se in vastam capacitatem insinuat," thus anticipating the labours of John Hunter and other more recent anatomists. The truth is that Aldrovandi often anticipated the so-called discoveries of his successors. Gmelin takes the credit of having discovered the White-collared Flycatcher in 1788, but it was figured and described by Aldrovandi. In the same way the elder Brehm enjoys the honour of having discovered the Firecrest in 1820, though Di Valli figured the species in 1601; while Olina not only figured it again in 1622, but described it—"sopra l'occhio ha una machietta biancha." Aldrovandi figured the black-chinned variety of the Brambling, though it was described as novel by the late Mr. Dawson Bowley. There are many things we might learn from the naturalists of the Renaissance. Read the account which Aldrovandi gives of his visiting a colony of Egrets and other aquatic birds in the Italian marshes, and then compare it with the late Mr. Seebohm's description of the same birds nesting on the Danube. The two accounts are identical in purpose, and not very dissimilar in style. Aldrovandi was the only one of the four great naturalists of his century who lived to a great age. Belon was cut off at forty-five, Gesner died at forty-eight, Turner had apparently reached sixty-one when he ceased from 'The Huntynge of the Romishe Wolfe.' Aldrovandi long survived all his rivals, and finally passed away in his eighty-fifth year, poor in substance, but rich in the esteem of his fellow-countrymen, who gave his mortal remains a magnificent public funeral. He had spent all his money in the preparation of his great works, and had been compelled to accept the favours of opulent patrons; but he had performed a noble service to zoology. His name will never be erased from the list of those who helped to feed the flame of scientific research during the stormy and eventful years which followed the birth of the New Learning in Europe.