260 BRITISH BIRDS. 



British Birds " (London, 1775, one vol., imp. folio) ; John 

 Walcott's " Synopsis of British Birds " (London, 1789, 

 two vols., 4to); WiUiam Lewin's "Birds of Great Britain " 

 (London, 1789, seven vols., imp. 4to); Thomas Lord's 

 " Entire New System of Ornithology, or (Ecumenical 

 History of British Birds " (London, 1791, 1 vol., foho); 

 Bolton's " Harmonia Ruralis " (London, 1794, two vols., 

 foho) ; and Edward Donovan's " Natural History of 

 British Birds " (London, 1794, ten vols., 8vo); were little 

 more than compilations, and of no particular interest 

 save to the collector and bibliographer. Exception 

 must be made in favour of such valuable works as John 

 Legg's " Discourse on the Emigration of British Birds " 

 (one vol., 8vo), anonymously published at Salisbury in 

 1780, and afterwards erroneously attributed to George 

 Edwards ; Tunstall's " Ornithologia Britannica,"* which 

 also appeared anonymously in 1771 (London, one vol., 

 folio); the well-known "General Synopsis of Birds," by 

 John Latham (London, 1781), which contained in the 

 second volume of its supplement " A List of the Birds of 

 Great Britain," and the still more famous " History of 

 British Birds," by Thomas Bewick, the first volume of 

 which appeared in 1797. 



Thomas Pennant, the son of a country gentleman, 

 was born at Downing, in Flintshire, in the year 1726, 

 and was educated at Queen's College, Oxford. Our 

 principal source of information for the particulars of 

 Pennant's life is his own work : — 



" The / Literary Life / of the late / Thomas Pennant, 

 Esq. / By Himself. / [Latin quotation] London : / Sold 

 by Benjamin & John White, Fleet-Street, / and Robert 

 Faulder, New Bond-Street. / MDCCXCIII. 



1 vol., 4to, pp. 144 & IV. Plates. 



From this quaint and somewhat self-laudatory work 

 we learn that Pennant having received as a present from 

 a kinsman, when twelve years old, a copy of the 



* A similar but much rarer work by Charles Fothergill was published 

 at York in 1799. 



