AZZARA, DON FELIX DE

AZZARA, DON FELIX DE, a celebrated Spanish naturalist, was born 18th May 1746. He studied first at the university of Huesca, and afterwards at the military academy of Barcelona. In 1764 he entered the army as a cadet, and in 1767 obtained an ensigny in the engineer corps. In 1781 he was appointed, with the rank of captain in the navy, on a commission to lay down the line of demarcation between the Spanish and the Portuguese territories in South America. There he spent many years, observing and collecting specimens of the various interesting objects of natural history that abound in those wide and little known regions. In 1801 he obtained leave to return to Spain, and was afterwards appointed a member of the Junta de fortificaciones y defensa de Ambos Indias, a public board in which chiefly was centred the home government of the Spanish colonies. He died in 1811. His principal work is his Travels in South America from 1781 to 1801; published in French from the author's MS., by C. A. Walckenaer, with atlas and plates, 4 vols. 8vo, Paris, 1809. It contains a valuable account of the discovery, conquest, civil and natural history of Paraguay and Rio de la Plata; and embodies his former contributions to the zoology of these countries. The work is enriched with the notes of Walckenaer and Cuvier, and a notice of the author by the former.