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.