Georges-Louis Leclerc, Compte de Buffon (1707-88), was a highly educated and respected French naturalist. He was the author of Les Époques de la Nature (1778), Oeuvres Complètes de Buffon (1853-55), and the book Birds is based on the extraordinary 36 volume work Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière, which was designed to explore nature’s three kingdoms, animal, mineral, and vegetable, and to serve as an encyclopedia of the world.
