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SOME EARLY BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS 

 AND THEIR WORKS. 



BY 

 W. H. MULLENS, M.A., LL.M., M.B.O.U. 



\I._THOMAS PENNANT (1726—1798). 



Although the fame of Thomas Pennant both as a 

 naturalist and as an author, has suffered somewhat by 

 the lapse of time, he nevertheless must ever hold a some- 

 what prominent position amongst the British ornitholo- 

 gists of the past. This he would, perhaps, be entitled to 

 by reason of his being the author of the first important 

 history of British birds, which was illustrated with 

 coloured plates* (i.e., The British Zoology, London, 

 1766, one vol., folio). But this point, interesting as it is, is 

 quite overshadowed by the fact that it was owing to 

 Pennant's undoubted position as the leading British 

 zoologist of his time that Gilbert White was led to address 

 to him, in the shape of letters, those notes and observations 

 which afterwards formed part of the immortal " Natural 

 History of Selborne." The numerous zoological works 

 of Pennant had, moreover, a very marked effect on the 

 production of ornithological literature in Great Britain. 

 The period which had elapsed from the death of the 

 celebrated John Ray in 1705, till the publication of 

 Pennant's " British Zoology " in 1766 is among the leanest 

 in the history of British ornithology, but the publication 

 of Pennant's works seems to have given an impetus to 

 the production of such literature, and though many of 

 the books that followed his " British Zoology," in quick 

 succession, such as John Berkenhout's " Outlines of 

 the Natural History of Great Britain " (London, 1769, 

 three vols., 8vo) ; William Hayes' " Natural History of 



* The first book treating of British birds, illustrated with coloured 

 plates, would appear to be '* A Natural History of English Song 

 Birds," by Eleazar Albin, London, 1737, 1 vol., 8vo. 



