The Natural History of Birds
From the French of the Count de Buffon; Illustrated with Engravings, and a Preface, Notes, and Additions, by the Translator

The first comprehensive accounts of eighteenth-century ornithology, first published between 1770 and 1783 and translated into English in 1793.

Georges Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (Author), William Smellie (Edited and translated by)

9781108022989, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 25 November 2010

492 pages, 29 b/w illus.
21.6 x 14 x 2.8 cm, 0.62 kg

Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707–1788) was a French mathematician who was considered one of the leading naturalists of the Enlightenment. An acquaintance of Voltaire and other intellectuals, he worked as Keeper at the Jardin du Roi from 1739, and this inspired him to research and publish a vast encyclopaedia and survey of natural history, the ground-breaking Histoire Naturelle, which he published in forty-four volumes between 1749 and 1804. These volumes, first published between 1770 and 1783 and translated into English in 1793, contain Buffon's survey and descriptions of birds from the Histoire Naturelle. Based on recorded observations of birds both in France and in other countries, these volumes provide detailed descriptions of various bird species, their habitats and behaviours and were the first publications to present a comprehensive account of eighteenth-century ornithology. Volume 1 covers birds of prey and flightless birds.

Preface
1. On the nature of birds
2. Explanation of technical terms
Birds of Prey: 4. The eagles
5. The golden eagle
6. The ring-tail eagle
7. The rough-footed eagle
8. The erne
9. The osprey
10. The sea-eagle
11. The white john
12. The vultures
13. The alpine vulture
14. The fulvous vulture
15. The cinereous vulture
16. The hare vulture
17. The ash-coloured vulture
18. The condor
19. The kite and the buzzards
20. The buzzard
21. The honey buzzard
22. The bird Saint Martin
23. The soubuse
24. The harpy
25. The moor buzzard
26. The sparrow-hawk
27. The gos-hawk
28. The jer-falcon
29. The lanner
30. The sacre
31. The common falcon
32. The hobby
33. The kestrel
34. The stone-falcon
35. The merlin
36. The shrikes
37. The great cinereous shrike
38. The woodchat
39. The red-backed shrike
40. The nocturnal birds of prey
41. The great-eared owl
42. The long-eared owl
43. The scops-eared owl
44. The aluco owl
45. The tawny owl
46. The white owl
47. The brown owl
48. The little owl
49. Birds which have not the power of flying
50. The ostrich
51. The touyou
52. The galeated cassowary
53. The hooded dodo
54. The solitary dodo, and Nazarene dodo.

Subject Areas: Evolution [PSAJ]