Jean Feuilley was a pilot engineer and

cartographer Cartography (; from , 'papyrus, sheet of paper, map'; and , 'write') is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an imagined reality) can ...

who was sent to

Réunion Réunion (; ; ; known as before 1848) is an island in the Indian Ocean that is an overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France. Part of the Mascarene Islands, it is located approximately east of the isl ...

by the

French East India Company Compagnie des Indes () may refer to several French chartered companies involved in long-distance trading: * First French East Indies Company, in existence from 1604 to 1614 * French West India Company, active in the Western Hemisphere from 1664 t ...

to investigate the possibility of agricultural and marine exploitation. He arrived in the island in 1704 and the following year returned to France. His "Mission à l’île Bourbon du sieur Feuilley en 1704" (published 1705) contains among other things descriptions of now-extinct bird species, like the Réunion kestrel and the

Réunion ibis The Réunion ibis or Réunion sacred ibis (''Threskiornis solitarius'') is an list of extinct birds, extinct species of ibis that was endemic to the volcanic island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean. The first subfossil remains were found in 1974 ...

.The Dodo and the Solitaire: A Natural History By Jolyon C. Parish
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References

French cartographers French East India Company French engineers French male writers {{France-engineer-stub