A Selection 



FROM 



R. H. PORTER'S PUBLICATIONS. 



SECOND EDITION. 

 COLOURED FIGURES OF THE 



BIRDS OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS, 



ISSUED BY LORD LILFORD, F.Z.S., &c.. 



President of the British Orjiithologists Union. 



The want of a series of accurately-coloured illustrations of British birds, 

 in a handy form, has long been felt. Of the works specially devoted to 

 this subject, that of Gould is too bulky and too costly to be available to 

 a large number of the lovers of Ornithology ; and Dresser's ' Birds of 

 Europe,' on the other hand, covers a much larger field. The text- 

 books of Macgillivray, Tarrell, and others are unaccompanied by illustra- 

 tions such as I propose to issue ; I think, therefore, that such illustrations 

 cannot fail to form a iiseful companion to the recognized text-books on 

 British Birds. 



The Drawings will be made, in the first instance, by the best artists, 

 and the Plates will be coloured lithographs reproduced from these by 

 the best known methods. 



The size of the work will be Boyal Octavo, and it will be issued in 

 Parts of twelve Plates each ; it is calculated that 32 such Parts will 

 complete the work, the price of each Part being 12*. Qd, As no 

 separate Parts will be sold. Subscribers are expected to continue their 

 subscription till the work is completed. 



" Lord Lilford is engaged at the present time in a work which ought to supersede 

 every stuffed collection except the National one. He is publishing in parts his 

 ' Coloured Figures of the Birds of the British Islands,' a woi-k of exquisite beauty 

 and permanent worth. ... No series illustrating British birds has ever been under- 

 taken equal to this, which is in the convenient size of large octavo. Of infinitely 

 more beauty than stuffed specimens, these figures would be more attractive and 

 equally useful to the students in our towns. Turn, for example, to the three plates 

 in Part IX., illustrating the three phases of the Ptarmigan's plumage. Fidelity to 

 nature could hardly be carried further. The figure of the Bittern in Part VII., 

 taken from live specimens in his lordship's aviary, show the very action and expres- 

 sion of the bird. Some of the plates, besides their scientific accuracy, are perfect 

 little pictures— such as that of the Bullfinch in Part VIII., worthy in itself of a 

 costly frame— and all of them include pleasant scraps of landscape or studies of 

 flowers and foliage characteristic of the lite-history of the animal, These, then, 

 are things of beauty and use, practically imperishable, and illustrating British 

 Ornithology with far more accuracy than a crowd of dusty, distorted, stuffed skins. 

 Lord Lilford's work (now in progress) only requires to be known to have as many 

 admirers as there are lovers of birds, and as many subscribers as can afford it." — 

 From the Ninctcc7>th Ccnfuri/, by Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart., M. P. 



"The standard of Excellence is fully maintained." — Ibis. 



" Nothing more life-like and artistic can be imagined." — Academy. 



R. H. PORTER, 18 Princes Street, Cavendish ScLuare, London, W. 



