A History of British Birds
A History of British Birds is a natural history book by Thomas Bewick, published in two volumes. Volume 1, Land Birds, appeared in 1797. Volume 2, Water Birds, appeared in 1804. A supplement was published in 1821. The text in Land Birds was written by Ralph Beilby, while Bewick took over the text for the second volume. The book is admired mainly for the beauty and clarity of Bewick's wood-engravings, which are widely considered his finest work, and among the finest in that medium.
Title-page of 1847 edition
Plate XLIII from Samuel Pepys's hand-coloured copy of Francis Willughby's 1678 Ornithology
7+1⁄4-by-9+3⁄4-inch (180 mm × 250 mm) wood engraving by Thomas Bewick of a Chillingham Bull, executed for Marmaduke Tunstall of Wycliffe, Yorkshire in 1789
"Foot of the Red-necked Grebe"
Thomas Bewick was an English wood-engraver and natural history author. Early in his career he took on all kinds of work such as engraving cutlery, making the wood blocks for advertisements, and illustrating children's books. He gradually turned to illustrating, writing and publishing his own books, gaining an adult audience for the fine illustrations in A History of Quadrupeds.
Portrait by James Ramsay
Cherryburn, Bewick's childhood home
Tail-piece in A History of British Birds, said to be of Bewick himself as a thirsty traveller drinking from his hat
Thomas Bewick in 1827, by Thomas Sword Good