A History of British Birds (Yarrell book)

A History of British Birds

Title-page of first edition
Author	William Yarrell
Illustrator	Alexander Fussell (drawing) John Thompson (engraving)
Subject	Birds
Genre	Natural history
Publisher	John Van Voorst, Paternoster Row, London
Publication date	1843
Publication place	England
Pages	3 vols (525, 669, 528 pp.)

William Yarrell's A History of British Birds was first published as a whole in three volumes in 1843, having been serialised, three sheets (=48 pages)^[1] every two months, over the previous six years. It is not a history of ornithology but a natural history, a handbook or field guide systematically describing every species of bird known to occur in Britain. A separate article of about six pages, containing an image, a description, and an account of worldwide distribution, together with reports of behaviour, is provided for each species.

It quickly became the standard reference work for a generation of British ornithologists, replacing Thomas Bewick's book of the same name through its increased scientific accuracy, but following Bewick in its mixture of scientific data, accurate illustrations, detailed descriptions and varied anecdotes, as well as in the use of small 'tail-piece' engravings at the ends of articles. This made the book attractive to the public as well as to specialists. Yarrell, a newsagent without university education, corresponded widely with eminent naturalists such as Thomas Pennant and Coenraad Jacob Temminck, and consulted the writings of scientists including Carl Linnaeus, to collect accurate information on the hundreds of species illustrated in the work.

The book is illustrated with over 500 drawings directly onto wood blocks, mostly by Alexander Fussell. These were then engraved by John Thompson. Publication was initially in 37 parts of three large folded sheets each; these were then collected and bound into volumes. Most of the copies were on octavo paper; some "large paper" format copies were printed in the larger royal octavo with just 50 copies in the very large imperial octavo format. Four editions were produced between 1843 and 1885.