Published only 13 years after two other works bearing the same title, this History of British Birds was a popular addition to a growing catalogue of ornithological works being published in the mid nineteenth century. Though not as glamorous as the exquisitely illustrated ‘bird books’ of John Gould, these volumes were more affordable for amateur naturalists of moderate means.
The project was the idea of the Yorkshire publisher Benjamin Fawcett. Fawcett had spent time making accurate drawings of birds and had devised an innovative method of producing coloured wood engravings. The resulting images were much quicker to produce compared to lithographs and provided a great deal of accuracy.
In 1850, Fawcett approached the naturalist Francis Orpen Morris to produce the accompanying text. Although primarily an entomologist, Morris agreed, and spent his evenings writing the letterpress. Overstretching themselves, Fawcett, Morris and their publisher Richard Groombridge, set about writing three works in tandem, producing a history of British butterflies and a history of birds’ nests and eggs in addition to the present work. While just about manageable for Fawcett (who already had many of the illustrations ready) and Groombridge, Morris was forced to rush the final volumes of British Birds. The text has little scientific value, relying mainly on anecdotes and quotations from literature, but the books were popular, going through several editions before the end of the century. This third edition was published in 1891.