Histoire naturelle des oiseaux d'Afrique, t. 1

François Le Vaillant

François Levaillant was a French writer, explorer, naturalist, zoological collector, travel writer, and noted ornithologist. He described many new species of birds based on birds he collected in Africa and several birds are named after him. He was among the first to use colour plates for illustrating birds and opposed the use of binomial nomenclature introduced by Carl Linnaeus, preferring instead to use descriptive French names such as the bateleur for the distinctive African eagle.