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

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 4 covers foreign and domestic finches and flycatchers.

1. The canary finch; 2. The habesh of Syria; 3. The linnet; 4. The minister; 5. The bengals, and the senegals; 6. The chaffinch; 7. The brambling; 8. The widows; 9. The greenfinch; 10. The goldfinch; 11. The lesser redpoll; 12. The siskin; 13. The tanagres; 14. The ortolan bunting; 15. The reed bunting; 16. The snow bunting; 17. The rice bunting; 18. The yellow bunting; 19. The bulfinch; 20. The coly; 21. The manakins; 22. The cock of the rock; 23. The cotingas; 24. Varieties of the pompadour; 25. The guirarou; 26. The anters; 27. The agami; 28. The tinamous; 29. The tocro; 30. The flycatchers; 31. The moucherolles; 32. The tyrants; 33. Birds related to the flycatchers, the moucherolles, and the tyrants.

Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707-88), was a leading French naturalist. These volumes, first published between 1770 and 1783 and translated into English in 1793, contain Buffon's description of various bird species and provide the first comprehensive account of eighteenth-century ornithology. Volume 4 covers foreign and domestic finches.