VOL. XI. | JOHN HUNT. 133 
wrapper of Part XIV is priced, in manuscript, 9s. In an 
undated notice to subscribers (preserved in the copies of 
British Ornithology in Mr. Colman’s library and in the library 
of the Zoological Society of London) it is stated that the 
author’s “‘ severe and dangerous illness ” had interrupted the 
regular publication of his book ; “* he, however, trusts that he 
shall be able to complete the Twelve Numbers in the course 
of the Year, as originally proposed.’ It was intended that 
the parts should be bound in three volumes, and _ three 
title-pages were issued for this purpose, but the book was 
never completed, the text ending abruptly in the middle of 
a sentence on p. 138 of Vol. III. Professor Newton has added 
a note in his copy of the British Ornithology (now in the Newton 
Library, Cambridge) that *‘ Joseph Clarke of Saffron Walden 
(25/v/81) tells me he believes this book was intended to be in 
six vols., as he has a plate of a Gull which is marked in pencil 
‘for Vol.6’.” It can, at this date, only be a matter of specula- 
tion as to how many volumes were originally intended. Hunt, 
in the title-page of his British Ornithology, announces that it 
will contain *‘ portraits of all the British Birds, including those 
of Foreign Origin, which have become domesticated .. . 
with descriptions . . . arranged according to the Linnean 
Classification,’ and on p. [1], Vol. I, he states that ‘‘ The 
Generic and Specific characters are quoted from Turton’s 
translation of Sir Charles [Linneus’s] works.’ * It is 
remarkable that Hunt’s text, up to that dealing with Larus 
glaucus, where Vol. III of the British Ornithology unexpectedly 
terminates, closely follows the arrangement set forth in 
Turton’s translation; it therefore seems unlikely that any 
“plate of a Gull”? could have been intended for so late a 
volume as “ Vol. 6.” Turton’s translation indicates with an 
asterisk some two hundred and eighty birds as British, so that, 
as Hunt’s letterpress only deals with about three-sevenths of 
that number, it is obvious that his work was far from being 
finished. The fact also that seventy-eight plates were pub- 
lished without any text relating to them is additional proof 
that the book came to a premature end; why is not known 
and it can only be conjectured that it did not prove a 
commercial success. It has already been shown that although 
the title-page of Vol. I of the British Ornithology is dated 
1815 it was not published till later; Vol. III is dated 1822, 
but it is remarkable that so Jate as 1829 the book should 
- A General System of Nature... Translated from Gmelin’s last 
edition of the celebrated Systema Nature by Sir Charles Linné .. . by 
William Turton ... Vol. I: 1802: pp. 131-637. 
