ubles dogged the great naturalist. The relations between him and
Daubenton had grown acute, and the latter, unwilling any longer to put
up with Buffon's love of vainglory, withdrew from the enterprise to
which his co-operation had imparted so much value. Serious illness,
also, and the death of Buffon's wife, caused a long suspension of his
labours, which were, however, lightened by the assistance of Gueneau de
Montbeliard.

One stroke of luck he had, which no one will begrudge the weary Titan.
James Bruce, of Kinnaird, on his return from Abyssinia in 1773, spent
some time with Buffon at his chateau in Montbard, and placed at his
disposal several of the remarkable discoveries he had made during his
travels. Buffon was not slow to appreciate this godsend. Not only did
he, quite properly, make the most of Bruce's disinterested help, but he
also expressed the confident hope that the British Government would
command the publication of Bruce's "precious" work. He went on to pay a
compliment to the English, and so commit them to this enterprise. "That
respectable nation," he asserts, "which excels all others in discovery,
can but add to its glory in promptly communicating to the world the
results of the excellent travellers' researches."

Still unfettered by any scheme of classification, either scientific or
logical, Buffon begins his account of the birds with the eagles and
owls. To indicate his course throughout the vast class, it will suffice
to name a few of the principal birds in the order in which he takes them
after the birds of prey. These, then, are the ostrich, bustard, game
birds, pigeons, crows, singing birds, humming birds, parrots, cuckoos,
swallows, woodpeckers, toucans, kingfishers, storks, cranes, secretary
bird, herons, ibis, curlews, plovers, rails, diving birds, pelicans,
cormorants, geese, gulls, and penguins. With the volume dealing with the
picarian birds (woodpeckers) Buffon announces the withdrawal of Gueneau
de Montbeliard, and his obligations for advice and help to the Abbe
Bexon (1748-1784), Canon of Sainte Chapelle in Paris.

_III.--Supplement and Sequel_

At the same time that the Birds volumes were passing through the press,
Buffon also issued periodically seven volumes of a supplement
(1774-1789), the last appearing posthumously under the editorship of
Count Lacepede. This consisted of an olla podrida of all sorts of
papers, such as would have won the heart of Charles Godfrey Leland. The
n