Thomas Bewick's Birds: Watercolours and Engravings

by Thomas Bewick

Provides illustrations and descriptions of more than fifty birds, from the common robin to the extinct great auk

Genres: Birds

52 pages, Hardcover

First published September 24, 1981

About the author

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.

Reviews

[Hilary · Rating 4 out of 5]

First published in 1797 this book selects some of Britain’s birds. Each is illustrated in black and white, I think these are woodcut but the introduction wasn’t particularly clear, so either woodcuts or engraving. The style is beautiful although I think many are observed from stuffed specimens so some do appear less lifelike and more stiff than their living counterparts.

I was surprised by the inclusion of the Black Woodpecker, the book seems to claim it is native but googling this fact I can find no recorded incidents of these birds being anything other than a rare off course visitor. I was fascinated at how many names were different, all the tits were called titmouse, the thrush was known as the throstle, the gold crest was called the golden crested wren....

This is a very interesting historical read with some beautiful illustrations. Jane Eyre pours over this in one scene of the story, I can see why she loved it so much.

[Andrea Lakly · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a lover of Jane Eyre, I read this book for one reason and one reason only -- to look at the supplementary engravings and imagine myself as little Jane hiding in the window seat before that asshole John Reed throws the book at me. I was shocked to find the engravings as little footnotes to the actual purpose of the book -- identifying and naming the common birds of Victorian England. Nonetheless, I ate the whole thing right up.

[Duckpondwithoutducks · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an abridgement of A History of British Birds by Thomas Bewick, first published in two volumes, in 1797 and 1804. It was an early field guide for the layman, with woodcut illustrations and descriptions of the behaviour of the various birds. My interest in the book began when reading Jane Eyre - because Jane pores over this book, liking the pictures more than the text. I agree with Jane, the pictures are beautiful.

[Zellizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Public domain, can be found here: https://archive.org/details/McGillLib...