SOME EARLY BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS. 219 



St. Pauls Church-yard. 1677. / The price in sheets at the 

 Press, nine shiUings. / To Subscribers, eight shilHngs. 



1 Vol. foHo. 



Collation : pp. 4, Imprimatur & Title. + pp. 8. un. + 

 pp. 358. + pp. 12, Errata & Index. Map & XVI. Plates. 



A second edition of " The Natural History of Oxfordshire " 

 appeared in 1705 " with large additions and corrections : 

 also a short account of the Author, &c." 



It cannot be said that Plot's observations on the birds of 

 Oxfordshire contain anything of much interest or value ; 

 he was a somewhat credulous writer, and seems to have been 

 a better authority on plants than on birds, and, indeed, is 

 mentioned by the eminent John Ray, in the latter' a 

 " Synopsis Methodica Stirpium Britannicarum " as 

 " Robertus Plot LL. Doctor, e cujus Historiis Naturalibus 

 lectu sane dignissimis territorii tum Oxoniensis, tum Stafford- 

 iensis, non pauca in Historiam & Synopsin hanc nostram 

 transtuli." It must not, however, be forgotten that Plot's 

 book was written at a time when but little was known of 

 British birds, in fact, the " Natural History of Oxfordshire " 

 was pubhshed a year before the appearance of Willughby's 

 famous " Ornithology " (English translation).* 



Robert Plot dealt with the birds of Oxfordshire on 



pp. 175 — 180 of his book, under the head " of Brutes." It will 



here suffice to state that, having informed his readers that 



there was but little that he could mention in the way of new 



matter " since the feathered kingdom has been so lately and 



so carefully surveyed by the learned and industrious Francis 



Willughby," he proceeds to describe, amongst other birds, 



one " about the bigness of a sparrow, with a blue back, and 



a reddish breast, a wide mouth and a long bill .... from 



the noise that it makes commonly called the Wood-cracker," f 



although this bird, which was undoubtedly the Nuthatch, 



* The Latin edition of Willughby's work entitled " Ornithologisu Libri 

 tres " appeared in 1676. 

 t Cf. Swainson, p. 35. 



