THE ORNITHOLOGICAL GUIDE. 91 



A History of British Birds, by Thomas Bewick, 2 vols. Svo. £1. 

 16s. 7th edition, 1832, 



The preface to the first edition of this admirable 

 work is dated September, 1797, and it would be 

 curious to compare that edition with the reprint of 

 1832. The 6th edition appeared in 1826, and this 

 was the last which its venerable author lived to give. 

 It is to be wished that Bewick had followed the 

 plan of other authors of giving a new preface to 

 each succeeding edition, each dated ; for we should 

 in that way be enabled to judge what improvements 

 had been made in each, and also the distance of 

 time at which each had appeared. The chief merit 

 of the work, as most of our readers aie probably 

 aware, consists in the wood-cuts ; the letter-press 

 however is also pretty fair on the whole, and very 

 interesting too, compared with that of Edwards or 

 Lewin ; those writers gave the husk, our present 

 author adds a sprinkling of the grain. The only 

 account of Bewick, so far as we are aware, is that 

 by Mr. Dgvaston, published in vols. I, II, and III, 

 of Loudon's Magazine of Natural History: we 

 shah 1 subjoin some of the remarks of this spirited 

 and delightful writer : — " I now, in this hasty, feeble, 

 and divaricated biographical sketch, approach the 

 great and favourite work of my admired friend, The 

 History of British Birds. The first volume of this 

 all-delighting work was published in 1797, jointly by 

 Bielby and Bewick, but was afterwards continued 

 by Bewick alone, some disputes having arisen, 



