86 CONSERVATOR OF SURGEONS' MUSEUM [oh. iv. 
accomplished during that fourth period of his life. 
Besides his lectures on natural history, many con¬ 
tributions to scientific periodicals, including the 
article “ Ornithology ” to the seventh edition of the 
Encyclopaedia Britannica , the editing of the 
Edinburgh Journal of Natural History and Physical 
Science, from 1835 to 1840, the editing of new 
editions of several books on natural science, a 
condensation of Alexander V on Humboldt s 
travels, the lives of eminent zoologists, Descriptions 
of the Rapacious Birds of Great Britain , published 
in 1836, which he called his “ first work,” although 
he had previously published many original papers, 
translations, and compilations, “all in the way of 
business,” as he says. He also during the same 
period wrote a History of British Quadrupeds for 
Jardin’s Naturalist's Library, Manuals of Botany, 
Geology, and Zoology, and the first, second, and 
third volumes of his History of British Birds —his 
“great work,” as he calls it by anticipation in his 
preface to the Rapacious Birds , the remaining two 
volumes having been issued only shortly before his 
death in 1852. 
The most important outcome, however, of his 
ten years' work consisted in the first three volumes 
of the History of British Birds , to which the 
patronage of Her late Majesty, Queen Victoria, had 
been graciously extended, and to whom the work 
was dedicated. 
The object which he sought specially to 
accomplish in the publication of that work is 
