248 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol xiii. 



show. On the title-page he has written : " With additional Notes by 

 Edwin Lees, Co-Editor of the work." On p. 13 at the third paragraph, 

 he has inserted this note : " Here commence those Illustrations of the 

 Natural History of Worcestershire, the greater part of which were 

 written by myself, E. Lees." He claims the authorship of pp. 37-47 

 and he notes that from the second paragraph of p. 56 to p. 84 is : " with 

 the exception of one paragraph, entirely my own contribution," and 

 this fact is the more interesting since these pages comprise the orni- 

 thology of the county. Again, he claims pp. 86-88 and on p. 90 

 writes : " The greater part of this sketch of the Geology of Worcester- 

 shire was drawn up by me and therefore I must be answerable for such 

 errors as occur." He claims pp. 98-109, part of p. 121 and he states 

 as regards the " catalogue of some of the rarer lepidopterous insects 

 found in Worcestershire " (pp. 136-146, which it must be noticed is 

 acknowledged as the work of Mr. Lees), that he compiled this list 

 " partly from observation, but with great assistance from the beautiful 

 cabinet of Lepidoptera collected by Mr. Abraham Edmunds." Of 

 the " Catalogue of the most remarkable and interesting plants " 

 (pp. 147—180) he observes : " Though not so stated, this account 

 of the rarer plants indigenous to Worcestershire was drawn out 

 entirely by myself. A few plants were contributed by Dr. Streeten 

 of Worcester to the list." Finally he claims the list of " Mineral 

 productions of Worcestershire " (pp. 181— 184) as his work. 



Thus it will be seen that Edwin Lees claims the authorship of nearly 

 three-fifths of the 184 pages of the book. As regards the map — -of 

 which [Sir] Charles Hastings says he is " indebted to the exertions of 

 Mr. Lees, Mr. Pearson and Mr. Strickland " — Edwin Lees notes : 

 " the Rev. Thomas Pearson rector of Great Witley is here alluded to. 

 But although Mr. Pearson sent a paper on the Mineralogy of Witley 

 Parish to the Worcestershire Nat. Hist. Soc, he had in fact nothing 

 to do with the Geological map." 



The most interesting point, however, is the fact that Edwin Lees 

 appears to have been responsible for the ornithological portion of the 

 book (pp. 62-72) whereas this has been attributed to E. Brown (Mullens 

 and Kirke Swann's Bibliography of British Birds, p. 284). The late 

 Mr. R. F. Tomes, in the Victoria History of the County of Worcestershire, 

 Vol. L (1901), p. 142, states that the Illustrations of the Natural History 

 of Worcestershire was " prepared under the auspices of a great authority, 

 H. E. Strickland, and contributed to by Mrs. Perrott," and he adds that 

 " a list of the birds of the Malvern District, by Edwin Lees, appeared 

 in the Trans. Malv. Nat. Field Club 1870, but the record is not very 

 satisfactory." 



The annotations, made in my copy, by Edwin Lees contain nothing of 

 any ornithological importance except a note concerning Mrs. C. E. L. 

 Perrott of the Chantry, Fladbury, who died on August 21st, 1836, and 

 about whose " elephant folio " — A Selection of British Birds frequenting 

 Worcestershire and the adjoining counties — there seems considerable 

 doubt (Mullens and Kirke Swann's Bibliography of British Birds, pp. 

 469-470). Lees's note is as follows : " This lady, Mrs. George Perrott, 

 afterwards came to reside in Worcester, where she died about 1836. 

 She was an ardent, intelligent woman and had drawn a great number 

 of British Birds in water-colours. These she intended to have engraved 

 and published, but only one number in folio ever came out." The last 

 words of this note are interesting as stating definitely that only one 

 part of this lady's book was ever published. 

 Capenoch, Jan., 1920. Hugh S. Gladstone. 



