[DUCKS]. Two manuscripts by Hébert, with autograph correctio - Lot 77

Lot 77
Go to lot
Estimation :
2000 - 3000 EUR
Result without fees
Result : 1 900EUR
[DUCKS]. Two manuscripts by Hébert, with autograph correctio - Lot 77
[DUCKS]. Two manuscripts by Hébert, with autograph corrections and additions. 27 pp. and 18 ½ pp. in-4. The first dated 1780. Smudging on one side. Two manuscripts on ducks, intended for Buffon. The first entitled "Canards", the second "Liste des canards, sarcelles et harles tués à la chasse par M. Hébert dans la province de Brie", describing 9 species, and ending with an account of visits he made to the menagerie of the Jardin du roi, the first in 1761, the second in 1776. He adds: "since I completed this list, Mr. Daubenton the younger has sent me the list of birds that will make up the 42nd cayer, and I see two scaups. They are not engraved, and I cannot see them. I'm waiting for them, and I'll know if they're the same birds that bear this name in Picardy, our Burgundy Redpolls". In the section on ducks in Histoire naturelle des oiseaux, Buffon drew heavily on material sent by Hébert, whom he quotes several times. "In the autumn passage, wild ducks stay out on the open water, far from the shore, where they spend most of the day resting and sleeping. I have observed them with a spotting scope," says M. Hébert, "on our largest ponds, which sometimes appear to be covered with them. You can see them with their heads under their wings [...]". And further on: "M. Hébert tells us that the pintail can be seen in Brie, at both crossings. It stands on the large ponds. Its call can be heard from quite a distance, hi zouë zouë [...]". Or again: "M. Hébert, who, as an attentive and even ingenious hunter, was able to find other pleasures in hunting than that of killing, has made some interesting observations on these birds, as on many others. It is," he says, "the species of millouin which, after that of the wild duck, has seemed to me the most numerous in the regions where I have hunted. They arrive in Brie at the end of October in flocks of twenty to forty [...]".
My orders
Sale information
Sales conditions
Return to catalogue