INTRODUCTION 41 



classical work, though the Planches colmees des Oiseaux de la Belgique of 

 the late M. Ch. F. Dubois (8vo, 1851-60) was so much more recent. To 

 this followed, in 1861-64, a supplementary volume, which, by including 

 species not found in Belgium, justified an extension of the title of the 

 whole to Planches colorizes cles Oiseaux de I' Europe ; while between 1876 

 and 1887, his son. Dr. Alphonse Dubois, devoted to Birds four volumes 

 of his Faune illustree des Verte'bre's de la Belgique (gr. 8vo), a work remark- 

 able for the introduction of small maps shewing the author's view of the 

 geographical range of the several species. In regard to Holland we have 

 Schlegel's De Vogels van Nederland (3 vols. Svo, 1854-58; ed. 2, 2 vols. 

 1878), besides his De Dieren van Nederland: Vogels (8vo, 1861).^ 



Here it may be well to cast a glance on a few of the works that refer 

 to Europe in general, the more so since most of them are of Continental 

 origin. First we have the already-mentioned Manuel d' Ornithologie of 

 Temminck, which originally appeared as a single volume in 1815 ^ ; but was 

 speedily superseded by the second edition of 1820, in two volumes. Two 

 supplementary parts were issued in 1835 and 1840 respectively, and the 

 work for many years deservedly maintained the highest position as the 

 authority on European Ornithology — indeed in England it may almost 

 without exaggeration be said to have been nearly the only foreign 

 ornithological work known ; but, as may well be expected, grave defects 

 are now to be discovered in it. Some of them were already manifest 

 when one of its author^s colleagues, Schlegel (who had been employed to 

 write the text for Susemihl's plates, originally intended to illustrate 

 Temminck's work), brought out his bilingual Revue critiqxie des Oiseaux 

 d'Europe (8vo, 1844), a very remarkable volume, since it correlated and 

 consolidated the labours of French and German, to say nothing of Eussian, 

 ornithologists. Of Gould's Birds of Europe (5 vols. fol. 1832-37) nothing 

 need be added to what has been already said. The year 1849 saw the 

 publication of Degland's Ornithologie Europ^enne (2 vols. 8vo), a work fully 

 intended to take the place of Temminck's ; but of which Bonaparte, in 

 a caustic but well-deserved Revue Critique (12mo, 1850), said that the 

 author had performed a miracle since he had worked without a collection 

 of specimens and without a library. A second edition, revised by M. 

 Gerbe (2 vols. 8vo, 1867), strove to remedy, and to some extent did 

 remedy, the grosser errors of the first, but enough still remain to make 

 few statements in the work trustworthy unless corroborated by other 

 evidence. Meanwhile in England the late Dr. Bree in 1858 began the 

 publication of The Birds of Europe not observed in the British Isles (4 vols. 

 Svo), which was completed in 1863, and in 1875 reached a second and 

 improved edition (5 vols.). In 1870-1 Dr. Anton Fritsch brought out his 

 Naturgeschichte der Vdgel Europas (8vo, with atlas in folio) ; and in 1871 

 Messrs. Sharpe and Dresser began the publication of their Birds of Europe, 

 which was finished by the latter alone in 1879 (8 vols. 4to), and is unques- 

 tionably the most complete work of its kind, both for fulness of informa- 

 tion and beauty of illustration — the coloured plates being nearly all by Mr. 



^ There are several important papers on Dutch Ornithology by Albarda, Blaauw, 

 Biittikofer, Crommelin, Jentink and others. 



^ Copies are said to exist bearing the date 1814. 



