Bof sez, “Slightly warped illustrations of familiar animals during the Enlightenment by a forerunner of Darwin. The animals are put in contrived settings and their faces are made to look like they have human characteristics”
The plates below are from a 1753 work called ‘Collection des Animaux Quadrupèdes’ which forms part of an enormous 36-volume series (‘Histoire Naturelle’) issued over a forty year period by Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon.
(Thanks, Bof!)