Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/19

 ORNITHOLOGY and in 1794 SIEMSSEN S Handbuch of the Birds of Mecklen burg was published at Rostock. But thesa works, locally useful as they may have been, did not occupy the whole attention of German ornithologists, for in 1791 BECHSTEIN reached the second volume of his Gemeinnutzige Naturge- schichte Deutschlands, treating of the Birds of that country, which ended with the fourth in 1795. Of this an abridged edition by the name of Omithologisches Taschenbuch appeared in 1802 and 1803, with a supplement in 1812; while between 1805 and 1809 a fuller edition of the original was issued. Moreover in 1795 J. A. NAUMANN humbly began at Cothen a treatise on the Birds of the principality of Anhalt, which on its completion in 1 804 was found to have swollen into an Ornithology of Northern Germany and the neighbouring countries. Eight supple ments were successively published between 1805 and 1817, and in 1822 a new edition was required. This Naturge- schichte der Vdgel Deutschlands, being almost wholly re written by his son J. F. NAUMANN, is by far the best thing of the kind as yet produced in any country. The fulness and accuracy of the text, combined with the neat beauty of its coloured plates, have gone far to promote the study of Ornithology in Germany, and while essentially a popular work, since it is suited to the comprehension of all readers, it is throughout written with a simple dignity that commends it to the serious and scientific. Its twelfth and last volume was published in 1844 by no means too long a period for so arduous and honest a performance, and a supplement was begun in 1847 ; but, the editor or author as he may be fairly called dying in 1857, this continua tion was finished in 1860 by the joint efforts of J. H. BLASIUS and Dr BALDAMUS. In 1800 BORKHAUSEN with others commenced at Darmstadt a Teutsche Ornithologie in folio which appeared at intervals till 1812, and remains unfinished, though a reissue of the portion published took place between 1837 and 1841. Other countries on the Continent, though not quite so prolific as Germany, bore some ornithological fruit at this period ; but in all Southern Europe only four faunistic products can be named : the Saggio di Storia Naturale Bresciana of PILATI, published at Brescia in 1769; the Ornitologia dell Europa Meridionale of BERNINI, published at Parma between 1772 and 1776 ; the Uccelli di Sardegna of CETTI, published at Sassari in 1776 ; and the Romano, Ornithologia of GILIUS, published at Rome in 1781 the ]-ist being in great part devoted to Pigeons and Poultry. More appeared in the North, for in 1770 Amsterdam sent . forth the beginning of NOZEMAN S Nederlandsche Vogelen. a fairly illustrated work in folio, but only completed by HOUTTTJYN in 1829, and in Scandinavia most of all was done. In 1746 the great LIXX^EUS had produced a Fauna Svecica, of which a second edition appeared in 1761, and a . third revised by RETZIUS in 1 800. In 1764 BRUNNICH pub lished at Copenhagen his Ornithologia Borealis, a com pendious sketch of the Birds of all the countries then sub ject to the Danish crown. At the same place appeared in 1767 LEEM S work De Lapponibus Finmarchix, to which GUNNERUS contributed some good notes on the Ornitho logy of Northern Norway, and at Copenhagen and Leipzig was published in 1780 the Fauna Groenlandica of OTHO . FABRICIUS. Of strictly American origin can here be cited only BARTRAM S Travels through North and South Carolina and BARTON S Fragments of the Natural History of Pennsyl vania, 1 both printed at Philadelphia, one in 1791, the other in 1799 ; but J. R. FORSTER published a Catalogue of the Animals of North America in London in 1771, and the 1 This extremely rare book has been reprinted by the Willughby Society. following year described in the Philosophical Transactions a few Birds from Hudson s Bay. 2 A greater undertaking was PENNANT S Arctic Zoology, published in 1785, with a Pennant. supplement in 1787. The scope of this work was originally intended to be limited to North America, but circumstances induced him to include all the species of Northern Europe and Northern Asia, and though not free from errors it is a praiseworthy performance. A second edition appeared in 1792. The Ornithology of Britain naturally demands greater attention. The earliest list of British Birds we possess is that given by MERRETT in his Pinax Rerum Merrett. Naturalium Britannicarum, printed in London in 1667. 3 In 1677 PLOT published his Natural History of Oxfordshire, Plot. which reached a second edition in 1705, and in 1686 that of Staffordshire. A similar work on Lancashire, Cheshire, and the Peak was sent out in 1700 by LEIGH, and one on Leigh. Cormvall by BORLASE in 1758 all these four being printed Borla.se. at Oxford. In 1766 appeared PENNANT S British Zoology, Pennant, a well-illustrated folio, of which a second edition in octavo was published in 1768, and considerable additions (forming the nominally third edition) in 1770, while in 1777 there were two issues, one in octavo the other in quarto, each called the fourth edition. In 1812, long after the author s death, another edition was printed, of which his son-in-law Hanmer was the reputed editor, but lie received much assistance from Latham, and through carelessness many of the additions herein made have often been ascribed to Pennant. In 1769 BERKENHOUT gave to the world his Berken- Outlines of the Natural History of Great Britain and ^ out - Ireland, which reappeared under the title of Synopsis of the same in 1795. TUNSTALL S Ornithologia Britannica, which Tunstall. appeared in 1771, is little more than a list of names. 4 In 1781 NASH S Worcestershire included a few ornithological notices; and WALCOTT in 1789 published an illustrated Wakot. Synopsis of British Birds, coloured copies of which are rare. In 1791 J. HEYSHAM added to Hutchins s Cumberland a list of Birds of that county, and in 1794 DONOVAX began Donovan. a History of British Birds which was only finished in 1819 the earlier portion being reissued about the same time. In 1800 LEWIN brought out a very worthless work with Lewin. the same title. All the foregoing publications yield in importance to two that remain to be mentioned, a notice of which will fitly conclude this part of our subject. In 1767 Pennant, several of whose works have already been named, entered into correspondence with GILBERT WHITE, receiving from Gilbart him much information, almost wholly drawn from his own White, observation, for the succeeding editions of the British Zoology. In 1769 White began exchanging letters of a similar character with Barrington. The epistolary inter course with the former continued until 1780 and with the latter until 1787. In 1789 White s share of the corre spondence, together with some miscellaneous matter, was published as The Natural History of Selborne from the name of the village in which he lived. Observations on Birds form the principal though by no means the whole theme of this book, which may be safely said to have done more to promote a love of Ornithology in this country than any other work that has been written, nay more than all the other works (except one next to be mentioned) put together. It has passed through a far greater number of 2 Both of these treatises have also been reprinted by the Willughby Society. 3 In this year there were two issues of this book ; one, nominally a second edition, only differs from the first in having a new title-page. No real second edition ever appeared, but in anticipation of it Sir THOMAS BROWNE prepared in or about 1671 (?) his &quot;Account of Birds found in Norfolk,&quot; of which the draught, now in the British Museum, was printed in his collected works by Wilkin in 1835. If a fair copy was ever made its resting-place is unknown. 4 It has been republished by the Willughby Society. XVIII. 2