HONDECOETER, MELCHIOR D' Dutch painter, born at Utrecht, was the pupil of his father Gysbert and of his uncle J. B. Weenix. He lived at The Hague (1659-63) and at Amsterdam where he married in 1663 and lived till his death on April 3, 1695. One of his earliest works is a "Tub with Fish," dated 1655, in the gallery of Brunswick. He acquired celebrity as a painter of birds, which he represented not exclusively, like Fyt, as the gamekeeper's perquisite after a day's shooting, or stock of a poulterer's shop, but as living beings with passions, joys, fears and quarrels. Without the brilliant tone and high finish of Fyt, his birds are full of action. Very few of his pictures are dated, though more are signed. Amongst the former we should note the "Jackdaw deprived of his Borrowed Plumes" (1671), at The Hague, "Game and Poultry," and "A Spaniel hunting a Partridge" (1672), in the gallery of Brussels; or "A Park with Poultry" (1686) at the Hermitage of Leningrad. William III. employed Hondecoeter to paint a picture, now at The Hague, of his mena gerie at Loo. But he is better in the homelier works with which he adorned the royal chateaux of Bensberg and Oranienstein. His masterpieces are at The Hague and at Amsterdam. But there are fine examples in private collections in England, and in the public galleries of Berlin, Carlsruhe, Cassel, Cologne, Copenhagen, Dresden, Florence, Glasgow, Hanover, Leningrad, London, Mont pellier, Munich, New York, Paris, Rotterdam, Stuttgart and Vienna.