Buffon’s ambitious and comprehensive work, ‘one of the most important of all bird books’ (Sitwell: Fine Bird Books) was issued in 42 parts with 1008 plates over a period of a decade and a half, and when bound filled ten volumes. The plates, engraved by Martinet, were originally intended to illustrate Buffon’s general Natural History, but in the event the more general work was illustrated with only 262 black and white plates.