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)

9781108023023, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 25 November 2010

596 pages, 22 b/w illus.
21.6 x 3.4 x 14 cm, 0.75 kg

Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707–88), 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 5 covers larks, wagtails and fig-eaters.

1. The sky-lark
2. The rufous-backed lark
3. The wood-lark
4. The tit-lark
5. The grasshopper-lark
6. The willow-lark
7. The meadow-lark
8. The Italian lark
9. The calandre, or large lark
10. The marsh-lark
11. The Siberian lark
12. The crested lark
13. The lesser crested lark
14. The undated lark
15. The nightingale
16. Species of the fauvette
17. The yellow-neck
18. The redstart
19. The red-tail
20. The Guiana red-tail
21. The epicurean warbler
22. The fist of Provence
23. The ortolan pivote
24. The red-breast
25. The blue-throat
26. The stone-chat
27. The whin-chat
28. The wheat-ear
29. The wagtails
30. The white wagtail
31. The bergeronettes
32. The fig-eaters
33. The middle-bills
34. The worm-eater
35. The black and blue middle-bill
36. The black and rufous middle-bill
37. The bimbele, or bastard lineet
38. The banana warbler
39. The middle-bill, with white crest and throat
40. The simple warbler
41. The pitpits
42. The yellow wren
43. The great yellow wren
44. The common wren
45. The gold-crested wren
46. The titmouse-wren
47. The titmice
48. The great titmouse, or ox-eye
49. The colemouse
50. The blue titmouse
51. The bearded titmouse
52. The penduline titmouse
53. The Languedoc titmouse
54. The long-tailed titmouse
55. The Cape titmouse
56. The Siberian titmouse
57. The crested titmouse
58. The nuthatch
59. The creepers
60. The common creeper
61. The wall creeper
62. The long-tailed soui-mangas
63. The American guit-guits.

Subject Areas: Evolution [PSAJ]