BELON (Pierre): L'Histoire de la Nature des Oyseaux, avec leurs descriptions, & naïfs portraicts retirez du naturel. A Paris, Gilles Corrozet, 1555; at colophon: imprimé à Paris par Benoist Prevost, 1555; in folio, (28)-381-(3) pp., 6 intermediate titles included in pagination, two blank ff. included in pagination (pp. 275-276 and last two unnumbered), fawn calf, spine ribbed, title stamped in gold on spine. Contemporary binding. First edition of the first ornithological treatise based on direct scientific observation, and the first to propose a systematic classification. Pierre Belon, who describes some 230 species, refers to Aristotle and Pliny and incorporates the results of his own research, particularly on species he observed during his trip to the Levant. L'Histoire de la nature des oyseaux is organized into seven parts: the first is a general introduction outlining the method followed, the anatomy and behavior of birds, with developments on the culinary and religious customs of the different nations concerning each animal; the other six bring together the species described according to a new classification established on the basis of their morphologies and lifestyles (birds of prey, palmipeds, etc.), which was an authoritative classification right up to Linnaeus. The section devoted to "birds of prey" includes interesting developments on falconry. Extensive woodcut illustrations: 161 vignettes in the text by various engraving studios, including a portrait of the author, two anatomical compositions and 158 ornithological representations, mainly based on drawings by painter Pierre Gourdelle. Brun, p. 119; Harvard-Mortimer, French, no. 50; Nissen, IVB, no. 86; Thiébaud, col. 65-66.MOR (brown spots on approx. 10 ff.)