INTRODUCTION Gl 
classical work, though the Planches coloriées des Oiseaua 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 coloriges des Oiseaux de ? Europe; while between 1876 
and 1887, his son, Dr. Alphonse Dubois, devoted to Birds four volumes 
of his Faune illustree des Vertébrés 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. 8vo, 1854-58; ed. 2, 2 vols. 
1878), besides his De Dieren van Nederland: Vogels (8vo, 1861).1 
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speedily superseded by the second edition of 1820, in two volumes, Two 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 critique des Oiseaux 
@ Europe (8vo, 1844), a very remarkable volume, since it correlated and 
consolidated the labours of French and German, to say nothing of Russian, 
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 Européenne (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. 
8vo), 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 Vogel 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. 
1 There are several important papers on Dutch Ornithology by Albarda, Blaauw, 
Biittikofer, Crommelin, Jentink and others. 
2 Copies are said to exist bearing the date 1814. 
