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| 330 bce |
Aristotle recognizes 140 bird species, and his list is a source for other early listers of birds, including Pliny, Frederick II, Leonardo da Vinci, Pierre Belon, and Ulisse Aldrovandi. |
| 305–30 bce |
Coffin for an Ibis, Egypt (Plate 33). |
| 250 bce |
Asoka introduces wildlife protection in India. |
| before 210 bce |
The Chinese general Meng Tian invents by this time a writing brush for use on silk. |
| before 200 bce |
Mayan hieroglyphic writing is used in Guatemala. |
| 200 bce |
King Devanampiyatissa established a wildlife sanctuary in Sri Lanka.
Paper is invented in China, and its use becomes widespread. |
| c. 95–55 bce |
Lucretius proposes a “ladder of Nature” based partially on Aristotle’s thought and might be seen to have anticipated modern evolutionary theory. |
| 50 CE |
Pliny the Elder, a Roman compiler, produces a 37-volume Historia naturalis, one volume of which is on birds. Repeatedly copied, it is among the first works to be printed, in 1469. Pierre Belon uses it in the 1500s, but it is increasingly debunked (see Plate 33). |
© 2008 Darryl Wheye and Donald Kennedy |
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The following sample covers about a century, during the rise of
ornithology as a science (c.1660-1760).
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