This beautiful hand-colored engraving is from Georges Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon & Bernard-Germain-Etienne, comte de Lacepede's Histoire naturelle, generale et particuliere, Servant de suite a l'histoire des Animaux quadrupedes. The work was published in Paris between 1750 and 1804 by l?Imprimerie Royale und Plassan. Buffon was responsible for the early years of publication until 1788, with Lacepede publishing from then to 1804.
Buffon's work became one of the most informative sources as far as the visual appearance of animals, and was highly understandable for a wide audience. Buffon described his work and love for natural history by stating that, "Natural history embraces all the objects the universe presents to us. This prodigious multitude of quadrupeds, birds, fish, insects, plants, minerals, etc., offers to the curiosity of the human mind a vast spectacle, of which the whole is so great that the details are inexhaustible."