BELON, PIERRE French naturalist, was born near Le Mans (Sarthe). He studied medicine at Paris, where he took the degree of doctor, and then became a pupil of the botanist Valerius Cordus (1515-44) at Wittenberg, with whom he travelled in Germany. Cardinal de Tournon furnished him with means for a scientific journey through Greece, Asia Minor, Egypt, Arabia and Palestine (1J46-49). Belon, who was highly favoured both by Henry II. and by Charles IX., was assassinated at Paris in April 1 564. His works include : Les observations de plusieurs singularites et choses memorabtes trouvees en Grece, Asie, etc. enlarged ed., Antwerp, ; Histoire naturelle des est ranges poissons (1551), De aquatilibus (1553), and L'Histoire de la nature des oyseaux (1555)• Belon was one of the first workers in the science of comparative anatomy.