QUILLS AND FEATHERS. 235 



are some 1200 beautifully coloured plates in the work, a 

 copy of which, is perhaps worth, five or six guineas. 



Latham's " General History of Birds," with the 

 synonyms of preceding writers, and 194 carefully coloured 

 plates, 11 vols. 4to, and printed at Winchester in 1821-28, 

 is a well-known work. "If the author had used a more 

 modern system of classification instead of adhering to that 

 of Linnaeus, this work would unquestionably be one of the 

 most complete and useful in existence," wrote a contempo- 

 rary reviewer. Considering, however, that the author was 

 nearly ninety when his work appeared, it deserves much 

 admiration. 



Montagu's " Ornithological Dictionary, or Alpha- 

 betical Synopsis of British Birds," with coloured frontis- 

 piece and 24 plates, in two volumes, dated 1802, is often 

 quoted. Colonel Montagu was one of the few soldiers who 

 devoted themselves to ornithology against a whole array of 

 the church militant. 



Glosse is a familiar name again. His " Popular History 

 of British Ornithology," a familiar and technical descrip- 

 tion of the birds of the British Isles, 19 plates, containing 

 70 coloured figures of birds (1853), is very pleasant reading. 

 He has written, too, some " Naturalist's Rambles on the 

 Devonshire Coast," which are illustrated with coloured 

 plates, and come near to the freshness of Gilbert White 

 himself. 



That latter admirable divine must not be overlooked. 

 To say there is an indescribable freshness about his work, 

 like the inalienable cadence which hangs round Shakespeare's 

 sentences or the mellow vigour of Scott's prose, would be 

 trite and ineffective. He is amongst birds what Isaak 

 Walton was amongst fishes the professor of the field, and 

 the permanent holder of that chair which Nature herself 

 has endowed. 



Well known to every one for the delightful details it 

 contains of the habits and manners of British birds, this 



