Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/79

PUFENDORF PUFF BIKD versity of Leipsic, and in 1656 went to Jena to devote himself to mathematics and philosophy under Erhard Weigel, at the same time apply- ing himself to the law of nature. On quitting Jena he became tutor to the son of the Swedish ambassador at Copenhagen, and while there prepared a work on general law, in which the principles of Grotius, Hobbes, and other ju- rists were combined with observations of his own. This was published in Holland in 1660 under the title of Elementa Jurisprudentice Universalis. It was dedicated to the elector palatine, Charles Louis, who in 1661 founded at Heidelberg a professorship of the law of na- ture and of nations, and placed Pufendorf in the chair. His lectures were very popular, and the university recovered during his residence much of its ancient prestige. In his Severini a Monzambano, De Statu Imperil Germanici (Geneva, 1667) he showed that the Germanic system was an incongruous assemblage of dis- cordant parts, and the parent of many social and political abuses, and suggested practical remedies. The work was translated into the chief languages of Europe, but excited much hostile criticism in Germany, particularly in Austria, where it was ordered to be burned by the hangman. Pufendorf defended the work without acknowledging the authorship, but found his position so uncomfortable, in con- sequence of the acrimonious controversy with German publicists, that in 1670 he accepted from Charles XI. of Sweden the professorship of the law of nations at Lund. In 1672 he published there the work on which his reputa- tion now rests, the treatise De Jure Natures et Gentium (" On the Law of Nature and Na- tions"), of which in 1673 he prepared an abridg- ment with some variations, entitled De Officio Hominis ac Civis Libri duo (" On the Duties of a Man and a Citizen "). On the invitation of the king of Sweden he removed to Stockholm, was appointed councillor of state and royal historiographer, and published Commentarii de Rebus Suecicis ab Expeditione Gustavi Adol- pJii usque ad Abdicationem Christina (Utrecht, 1676). In 1688 he accepted a similar office, with an annual pension of 2,000 crowns, at the court of Frederick William, elector of Bran- denburg, the history of whose reign he pub- lished under the title of Commentarii de Rebus Gestis Frederici Wilhelmi Magni, Electoris Brandenburgici. In 1694, shortly before his leath, and while he was in Berlin, the king of Sweden created him a baron. Of his great reatise, first printed in German at Leyden in 1672, and afterward at Frankfort much aug- mented (1684), the best edition is that pub- lished at Leipsic cum Notis Variorum by G. "fascov (2 vols. 4to, 1744). The French trans- ition by J. Barbeyrac (2 vols. 4to, Amster- dam, 1712), with notes, is the version most es- emed. There is an English version by Basil Kennet, with Barbeyrac's preface and notes translated by Carew (London, 1749). Pufen- dorf wrote several less important works. PUFF BALL. See LYCOPEEDON. PUFF BIRD, an appropriate name for the bucconina, an American subfamily of diurnal fissirostral birds, placed by Gray in the king- fisher family, but by the older and some mod- ern writers in the scansorial family of barbets or capitonincB ; the generic name bucco is ap- plied by Cuvier to the latter. In the typical genus ~bucco (Linn.), as recognized by Gray, the bill is long, strong, elevated, and very broad at the base, where it is furnished with tufts of strong bristles, and suddenly curved at the tip, which is hooked ; the gape very wide ; nostrils concealed by the projecting plumes and bristles; wings moderate and rounded, the first quill short and the fourth the longest ; tail long, broad, even, rounded on the sides ; tarsi shorter than the middle toe, strong, and covered in front with transverse scales ; toes two before and two behind, the outer anterior the longest, and the claws long and acute. There are about Pied Puff Bird (Bucco macrorhynchus). a dozen species described, in tropical South America ; the name is derived from their habit of puffing out the plumage of the head, which gives them a heavy and ill balanced appear- ance. They are solitary, silent, and melan- choly-looking, living generally in retired woods, perching on some low and thickly leaved branch, with the large head drawn between the shoulders ; thus they remain for hours at a time, occasionally darting after insects, return- ing to the same perch, which they are said to frequent for months together ; they sometimes climb like woodpeckers, supported by the tail, in search of insects in the bark ; the nest is made in the hollows of trees ; they are not shy, and sometimes select spots near human habita- tions ; their colors are sombre, very different from those of the barbets, with which some authors have classed them. The collared puff bird (. collaris, Lath.) is 7J in. long ; rufous above, striated with black; whitish on the chest, terminated by a broad black band ; a similar band across the shoulders ; abdomen