350 
A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
[lewin 
work) 1 and various eminent men of his day. He is said to 
have “ generally painted his subjects in body colours, upon 
vellum ; his style was bold and his colouring powerful, 
without, in general, being highly finished.” The birds are, 
however, badly proportioned, and the colouring in general 
crude. In addition to his well-known plates of birds, he 
did some clever ones of British insects, and published one 
volume of The Insects of Great Britain , 1795. 
Newton considered his British Birds a “ very worthless 
book.” The first issue, however, is scarce, and the plates 
being in larger size, in the form of drawings, it is of the greater 
merit, and consequently in some demand by collectors. For 
the second issue the plates were engraved in smaller size. 
John William Lewin, the author and artist of the Birds 
of New South Wales and the Lepidopterous Insects of New 
South Wales, was said by Swainson to be a son of W. Lewin, 
but the biography in the Diet. Nat. Biog. makes him a 
brother — we think erroneously. He had a brother whose 
name was Thomas. 
J. W. Lewin executed a remarkably fine series of drawings 
of shells which have never been published, but which are now 
in the possession of a London bookseller. They were errone- 
ously attributed by Swainson to William Lewin. 
1789-94. The | Birds of | Great -Britain, | with | their eggs, | accurately 
figured . | By | William Lewin. | London : | Printed for the 
Author ; | and sold by Leigh and Sotheby, York Street, Co vent 
Garden. | mdcclxxxix [-xciv]. 
Collation — 7 vols. folio or imp. 4to. VoL I., pp. viii + pp. 
41; pi. 44 (birds), i.e. 41 numbered pi. + front., and 2 
pi. each of Nos. 18 and 19 of birds and 7 pi. eggs. Vol. 
II., title + pp. 46; pi. 45 (birds) and pi. 6 (eggs). Vol. III., 
title + pp. 42 ; pi. 41 (birds) and pi. 5 (eggs). Yol. IV., title + pp. 
39 ; pi. 38 (birds) and pi. 10 (eggs). Vol. V., title + pp. 38 ; pi. 
36 (birds) and pi. 9 (eggs). Vol. VI., title + pp. 34 ; pi. 34 (birds) 
and pi. 11 (eggs). Vol. VII., title + pp . 33; pi. 33 (birds), viz. 
30 numbered pi. of birds + two each of 244, 250, 260, and pi. 4 
(eggs). The total number of plates "being 271 of birds and 52 of 
eggs* 
1 A volume containing 90 plates and inscribed British Birds' Eggs, 'painted from 
the Portland Museum by W. Thos. Lewin, is in the W.P.L. The figures correspond 
mainly to those in The Birds of Great Britain, but are far better executed. 
