INTRODUCTION 27 



with text by some unnamed author, the scheme was brought within prac- 

 ticable limits, and the writing of the letterpress was entrusted to Vieillot, 

 who, proceeding on a systematic plan, performed his task very creditably, 

 completing the work, which forms two quarto volumes, in 1825, the original 

 text and 57 plates being relegated to the end of the second volume as a sup- 

 plement. His portion is illustrated by 299 coloured plates that, wretched 

 as they are, have been continually reproduced in various text-books — a 

 fact possibly due to their subjects having been judiciously selected. It is 

 a tradition that, this work not being favourably regarded by the authorities 

 of the Paris Museum, its draughtsman and author were refused closer 

 access to the specimens required, and had to draw and describe them 

 through the glass as they stood on the shelves of the cases. 



In 1827 Jardine and Selby began a series of IllustratioTis of 

 Ornithology, the several parts of which appeared at long and irregular 

 intervals, so that it was not until 1835 that three volumes containing 

 150 plates were completed. Then they set about a Second Series, which, 

 forming a single volume with 53 plates, was finished in 1843.^ These 

 authors, being zealous amateur artists, were for the most part their own 

 draughtsmen and engravers. In 1828 James Wilson began, under the 

 title of Illustrations of Zoology, the publication of a series of his own 

 drawings (which he did not, however, himself engrave) with corresponding 

 letterpress. Of tlie 36 plates illustrating this volume, a small folio, 20 

 are devoted to Ornithology, and contain figures, not very successful, of 

 several species rare at the time. 



Though the three works last mentioned fairly come under the same 

 category as the Planclies Enlumin^es and the Planches Oolorie'es, no one of 

 them cair be properly deemed their rightful heir. The claim to that 

 succession was made in 1845 by Des Murs for his Icoyiographie Ornitho- 

 logique, which, containing 72 plates by Prevot and Oudart^ (the latter of 

 whom had marvellously improved in his drawings since he worked with 

 Vieillot), was completed in 1849. Simultaneously with this Du Bus 

 began a work on a plan precisely similar, the Esqimses Ornithologiques, 

 illustrated by Severeyns, which, however, stopped short in 1849 with its 

 37th plate, while the letterpress unfortunately does not go beyond that 

 belonging to the 20th. In 1866 the succession was again taken up by the 

 Exotic Ornithology of Messrs. Sclater and Salvin, containing 100 plates, 

 representing 104 species, all from Central or South America, which 

 are neatly executed by Mr. Smit. The accompanying letterpress is in 

 some places copious, and useful lists of the species of various genera are 

 occasionally subjoined, adding to the definite value of the work, which, 

 forming one volume, was completed in 1869. 



Lastly here must be mentioned Eowley's Ornithological Miscellany, in 

 three quarto volumes, profusely illustrated, which appeared between 1875 

 and 1878. The contents are as varied as the authorship, and, most of 

 the leading English ornithologists having contributed to the work, some 

 of the papers are extremely good, while in the plates, which are in Mr. 



^ Cf. Sherborn, lUs, 1894, p. 326. 



^ On the title-jDage credit is given to the latter alone, but only two-thirds of the 

 plates (from pi. 25 to the end) bear his name. 



