Synopses & Reviews
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 9 covers water fowl and related birds.
Synopsis
The first comprehensive accounts of eighteenth-century ornithology, first published between 1770 and 1783 and translated into English in 1793.
Table of Contents
1. The swan; 2. The goose; 3. The brent; 4. The barnacle; 5. The eider; 6. The duck; 7. The musk duck; 8. The wigeon; 9. The crested whistler; 10. The whistler with red bill and yellow nostrils; 11. The black-billed whistler; 12. The gadwall; 13. The shoveler; 14. The pintail; 15. The long-tailed duck from Newfoundland; 16. The sheldrake; 17. The pochard; 18. The pochard; 19. The millouinan; 20. The golden eye; 21. The morillon; 22. The little morillon; 23. The scoter; 24. The double scoter; 25. The broad-biller scoter; 26. The beautiful crested duck; 27. The little thick-headed duck; 28. The collared duck of Newfoundland; 29. The brown duck; 30. The gray-headed duck; 31. The white-faced duck; 32. The marec and mareca, Brazilian ducks; 33. The sarcelles; 34. The petrels; 35. The wandering albatross; 36. The guillemot; 37. The little guillemot; 38. The puffin; 39. The puffin of Kamtschatka; 40. The penguins and the manchots; 41. The little penguin; Notes and hints of certain species of birds that are uncertained or unknown; Appendix; Addenda.