ORNITHOLOd V 



been issued, with text by some unnamed author, the 

 scheme was brought within practicable limits, and the 



Vicillot. writing of the letterpress was entrusted to Vietllot, 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 fifty-seven plates 

 being relegated to the end of the second volume as a supple- 

 ment. His portion is illustrated by two hundred and 

 ninety-nine 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 favour- 

 ably 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. 



Jardine In 1825 Jaedine and Selby began a series of Illustra- 



and Selby. tions of Ornithology, the several parts of which appeared 

 at long and irregular intervals, so that it was not until 

 1839 that three volumes containing one hundred and fifty 

 plates were completed. Then they set about a Second 

 Series, which, forming a single volume with fifty-three 

 plates, was finished in 1843. These authors, being zealous 

 amateur artists, were their own draughtsmen to the extent 



Wii even of lithographing the figures. In 1828 James Wilson 



(author of the article Ornithology in the 7th and 8th 

 editions of the present work) began, under the title of Illus- 

 trations of Zoology, the publication of a series of his own 

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

 with corresponding letterpress. Of the thirty six plates 

 illustrating this volume, a small folio, twenty are devoted to 

 ( iniithology, and contain figures, which, it must be allowed, 

 are not very successful, of several species rare at the time. 

 Though the three works last mentioned fairly come 

 under the same category as the Planches Enluminees and 

 the Planches Colonics, no one of them can be properly 

 deemed their rightful heirs. The claim to that succession 



Di Blurs, was made in 1845 by Des Mubs for his Iconographie 

 Ornithologique, which, containing seventy-two plates by 

 Prevot and Oudart 1 (the latter of whom had marvellously 

 improved in his drawings since lie worked with Vieillot), 

 was completed in 1S49. Simultaneously with this Drj 



Da Ens. Bus began a work on a plan precisely similar, the Esquisses 

 Ornithologiques, illustrated by Severeyns, which, however, 

 stopped short in 1849 with its thirty-seventh plate, while 

 the letterpress unfortunately does not go beyond that 

 belonging to the twentieth. In 18G6 the succession was 



Sclater again taken up by the Exotic Ornithology of Messrs Sclater 



ami and Salvix, containing one hundred plates, representing 



Salvia one hundred and four 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. 



Rowley. Lastly here must be mentioned Rowley'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 Keulemans's best manner, many rare 

 species of Birds are figured, some of them for the first 

 time. 



All the works lately named have been purposely treated 

 at some length, since being very costly they are not easihj 

 accessible. The few next to be mentioned, being of smaller 

 size (octavo), may be within reach of more persons, and 



1 On the title page credit is given to the latter alone, but only two- 

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



therefore can be passed over in a briefer fashion without 

 detriment. In many waj i, however, they are nearly as 

 important. Swainson's Zoological Illustrations in three 



volumes, containing one hundred and eighty-two p] 

 whereof Seventy represent Birds, appeared between 1820 

 and 1821, and in 1829 a Second Series of the same was 

 begun by him, which, extending to another three volumes, 

 contained forty-eight more plates of Birds out of one 

 hundred and thirty-six, and was completed in 1833. All 

 the figures were drawn by the author, who as an ornitho 

 logical artist had no rival in his time. Every plate is not 

 beyond criticism, but his worst drawings shew more know 

 ledge of bird-life than do the best of his English or French 

 contemporaries. A work of somewhat similar character, 

 but one in which the letterpress is of greater value, is the 

 Centurie Zoologique of Lesson, a single volume that, i. 

 though bearing the date 1830 on its title page, is believed 

 to have been begun in 1829, 2 and was certainly nol 

 finished until 1831. It received the benefit of Isidore 

 Geoffroy St-Hilaire's assistance. Notwithstanding its name 

 it only contains eighty plates, but of them forty-two, all 

 by Pretre and in his usual stiff style, represent Birds. 

 Concurrently with this volume appeared Lesson's Traite 

 d'Ornithologie, which is dated 1831, and may perhaps be 

 here most conveniently mentioned. Its professedly system 

 aticform strictly relegates it to another group of works, but 

 the presence of an "Atlas" (also in octavo) of onehundred 

 and nineteen plates to some extent justifies its notice in this 

 place. Between 1831 and 1834 the same author brought 

 out, in continuation of his Centurie, his Illustration:; de 

 Zoologie with sixty plates, twenty of which represent Birds. 

 In 1832 Kittlitz began to publish some Kupfertafeln zur Kittlitz. 

 Xatinyescliic/i/e der Vogel, in which many new species are 

 figured ; but the work came to an end with its thirty-sixth 

 pfate in the following year. In 1845 Reicheneach com- R< ichen 

 menced with his Praktische Waturgeschichte der Vogel ihe liao1 '- 

 extraordinary series of illustrated publications which, under 

 titles far too numerous here to repeat, ended in or about 

 1855, and are commonly known collectively as his VoU- 

 standigste Naturgeschichte der Vic/'/- 3 Herein are contained 

 more than nine hundred coloured and more than one 

 hundred uncoloured plates, which are crowded with the 

 figures of Birds, a large proportion of them reduced copies 

 from other works, and especially those of Gould. 



It now behoves us to turn to general and particularly 

 systematic works in wdiich plates, if they exist at all, 

 form but an accessory to the text. These need not 

 detain us for long, since, however well some of them 

 may have been executed, regard being had to their epoch, 

 ami whatever repute some of them may have achieved, 

 they are, so far as general information and especially 

 classification is concerned, wholly obsolete, and most of 

 them almost useless except as matters of antiquarian 

 interest. It will be enough merely to name Dumeeil's 

 Zoologie Analytiqui (1806) and Gravenhoest's Vergleich- 

 ende Ueoi rsicht •!■ s I into iscfo u mal < inigi r ru ut ru toologischt n 

 Systeme (1807); nor need we linger over Shaw's General Shaw and 

 Zoology, a pretentious compilation continued by STEPHENS. Stephens. 

 The last seven of its fourteen volumes include the Class 

 Acs, and the first part of them appeared in 1809, but, 

 the original author dying in 1815, when only two volumes 

 of Birds were published, the remainder was brought to an 

 end in 1826 by his successor, who afterwards became well 

 known as an entomologist. The engravings which the e 

 \ -i duincs contain are mostly bad copies, often of bad figi 



In 1828 he had brought out, under the title of Manuel d'Orm 

 thologie, two handy duodecimos which are very good of their kind. 



3 Technically speaking they arc in quarto, but their size is so 

 small that they may be well spoken of here. In 1879 Di ' 

 Meyer brought out an Index to them. 



