J.N.S. Allamand’s additions (1769—1781) to the Nouvelle Edition of Buffon’s Histoire Naturelle published in Holland

Jean Nicolas Sébastien Allamand (1713—1787), working in Holland, wrote 41 articles about mammals which were not, or only insufficiently, treated by the Count of Buffon in his Histoire naturelle. Allamand’s contributions first appeared between 1769 and 1781 in various volumes of a French edition of the Histoire naturelle published by J.H. Schneider in Amsterdam. These additional articles are analysed to recognize the sources available to Allamand. The new information was mainly derived from animals seen at fairs in Holland, at the inn Blauw Jan in Amsterdam, in the menagerie and museum of Stadholder Willem V near The Hague, in the museum of the University of Leiden, and from observations made in South Africa by R.J. Gordon.