Melchior, a distinguished Dutch animal-painter, was born at Utrecht in 1636. His father and grandfather had both made for themselves a considerable name in that walk of art, but their fame was soon totally Though he painted most kinds of animals, his favourite subjects were cocks, hens, ducks, and peacocks, which he delineated with wonderful correctness and truth to nature. It is said that he trained a cock to stand in whatever attitude he desired, and to remain in that posture for several hours at a time without moving a muscle. The landscapes which he introduced as back-grounds to his pictures were like them wonderfully true to nature, and finished with a delicate lightness and transparency of touch that harmonized admirably with the subject of the piece. In his walk he has never been rivalled, and his genuine pictures, of which the best are in English collections, often fetch high prices. Connoisseurs have less difficulty in detecting copies or forgeries of his pieces than any other of the old masters. Hondekoeter died in 1695 at the age of fifty-nine.