Henry Seebohm was an amateur ornithologist from Yorkshire. The son of a Bradford wool merchant, Seebohm had the means to pursue his hobby in his spare time. He travelled throughout Europe and also visited South Africa.

Using the observations made overseas, Seebohm became one of the first British ornithologists to adopt the trinomial system devised in the United States of America to classify subspecies.

This book is part of Seebohm’s lavishly illustrated History of British Birds. The work was intended to serve as a catalogue of birdlife in Britain, describing species, habitats, nests and eggs. The History eventually came to occupy six volumes (the Royal Library holds the first four only) but Seebohm died before he could finish the final volume, which was completed by Richard Bowlder Sharpe and published in 1896.