The Ornithological Dictionary; or Alphabetical Synopsis of British Birds was written by the English naturalist and army officer George Montagu, and first published by J. White of Fleet Street, London
Title page of first edition
Frontispiece of 1802 edition of the Ornithological Dictionary, showing a cirl bunting. Montagu discovered the species near his home in Devon.
The start of the Ornithological Dictionary's article on the cirl bunting
Montagu's book was considered the first major advance in British ornithology since Francis Willughby and John Ray's 1676 Ornithologia libri tres.
In 1815 he graduated M.A. from Glasgow University where he had previously studied natural sciences, and took holy orders. In 1821 he moved to London. From 1830 to 1834 he was professor of natural hist
Rennie's Alphabet of Scientific Angling For the Use of Beginners (1833), showing John Wilson using his pen name Christopher North