10 BRITISH BIRDS. 



& / succinct a historia. / Ex optimis quibusque 



script o- / ribus Contexta, Scholio illu / strata 



& aucta. / Adjectis nominibus Grsecis, Ger- 



manicis & / Britannicis. / Per Dn. Guilielmum 



Turnerum, artium & Me- / dicinse doctorem / 



Colonise excudebat loan. Gymnicus, / Anno 



M.D.XLIIII." 



1 Vol., 8vo., pages unnumbered, 157 (c/. Ibis, 1899, p. 153). 



The above is the first edition. It was reprinted by 



Dr. George Thackeray, Provost of King's College, 



Cambridge, in 1823 ; the reprint is said to be as rare as 



the original — and again by Mr. A. H. Evans, in 1903, 



at the Cambridge University Press — Mr. Evans' edition 



contains a full translation and many valuable notes. 



Turner's object in writing this work is set out both 

 in the title and in the Epistola N uncwpatoria thereof. 

 This was to determine the principal kinds of birds named 

 by Aristotle and Pliny in their writings. In addition 

 to this, he also added copious notes on those species 

 which came under his own immediate observation, 

 " and in so doing he has produced the first book on birds 

 which treats them in anything like a scientific spirit," 

 and not merely from a medical point of view. But the 

 great value of Turner's work consists in the fact that he 

 is always most careful to tell us whether he observed the 

 birds he describes in England or abroad, and it is for this 

 reason that his comments are of such importance to the 

 student of British ornithology. It must here suffice to 

 give a few short extracts. 



Speaking of the Crane, he says : — " The smaller, that 

 is, younger, Cranes, are called by Pliny, Vipiones, as 

 young Doves are known as Pipiones. Cranes, moreover, 

 breed in England in marshy places ; I myself have often 

 seen their pipers [young Pigeons are still called pipers 

 in England], though some people born away from England 

 urge that this is false " (c/. Evans' Ed., p. 97). 



And of the Kite, or " Kyte " : — " I know two sorts of 

 Kites, the greater and the less ; the greater is in colour 



