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 Illustrations 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 1843.1 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 the 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 Planches Enluminées and the Planches Coloriées, no one of 
them can be properly deemed their rightful heir. The claim to that 
succession was made in 1845 by Des Murs for his Iconographie Ornitho- 
logique, which, containing 72 plates by Prévot 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 Hsquisses 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 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. 
1 Gf. Sherborn, Jbis, 1894, p. 326. 
2 On the title-page credit is given to the latter alone, but only two-thirds of the 
plates (from pl. 25 to the end) bear his name. 
