A History of British Birds, Volume I (Land Birds)

1797

[From Thomas Bewick My Life, edited by Iain Bain, p. 133-4, 138 (spelling and punctuation as given in the original manuscript)]

'While the sale of the Quadrupeds was going on, edition after edition with great success, I turned my thoughts to the History of British Birds.[...]Pennant’s Works [...] opened out the largest field of information, and on his works I bestowed the most attention. [...] As soon as it was spread abroad that we were engaged with the history of birds and their figures, I was, in consequence, led into a seemingly endless correspondence with friends and amateurs.[...] At the beginning of this undertaking, I made up my mind to copy nothing from the works of others but to stick to nature as closely as I could. And for this purpose, I was invited by Mr Constable, the then owner of Wycliffe [in North Yorkshire near Barnard Castle], to visit the extensive museum there, collected by the late Marmaduke Tunstall Esqre [the same as had commissioned The Chillingham Bull in 1789], to make drawings of the birds. I set off from Newcastle on 16 of July 1791 (the day on which my friend Dr Bailes died) and remained there, drawing from the stuffed specimens, nearly two months. [...] As soon as I arrived in Newcastle, I immediately began to engrave from the drawings of the birds I had made at Wycliffe, but I had not been long thus engaged ’till I found the very great difference between preserved specimens and those from nature, no regard having been paid at that time to place the former in their proper attitudes, nor to place the different seeries of feathers, so as to fall properly upon each other. This has always given me a great deal of trouble to get at the markings of the dishevelled plumage, and when done with every pains, I never felt satisfied with them. I was on this account driven to wait for birds newly shot, or brought to me alive, and in the intervals employed my time in designing and engraving tail pieces or vignettes.[...] After working many a late hour upon the cuts, the first volume of the book was, at length, finished at press in September 1797.

The first volume of British Birds was started soon after the great success of the Quadrupeds in in 1790. It did not appear until 1797, again being largely engraved in Bewick’s “spare time”. It was sold for 10 shillings and sixpence (half a guinea), or just over half a pound.

There are 118 main figures (with another 20 added in a supplement to later editions). In addition to the figures there are many vignette tailpieces at the ends of the sections of writing — please go to the Vignettes page to see samples of these.

The Tawney Owl, p. 92.

The Magpie, p. 110.

The Skylark, p. 195.

The Robin, p. 217.

The Cockerel, p. 281.

The Peacock, p. 293.