18thC Dusky Thrush? (1 Viewer)

Jane Turner · Jul 9, 2011

I have in my hands the earliest bird book that I've ever been able to et my hands on. There are some fascinating entries - breeding Welsh and Derbyshire Golden Eagle, accounts of Ivory-billed Woodie, Great Auk and Dodo, but the following description most took my eye.

Unsually I'm failing to locate any reference to the book

harr1y · Jul 9, 2011

I like a challenge ... after googling this is as close as i can get to any references ...i think its reprints of the original book ..or at least similar by the same author

http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/S...bsi=30&sortby=3&tn=natural+history&prevpage=1

Jane Turner · Jul 9, 2011

Yes that's the beast -I've located a 1st edition of all 6 - getting that it was part of a set with a different title was the key.

http://www.klinebooks.com/cgi-bin/kline/14737

I missed all the print on demands because I have it as an automatic exclusion in my book searches!

phil baber · Jul 9, 2011

I found a review of the time. (p.310)
Critics, don't you just love 'em?
Pied Fieldfare? A good bird!

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=...resnum=10&ved=0CE0Q6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q&f=false

Jane Turner · Jul 9, 2011

If you like a challenge, have a crack at the plates - this is an easy one

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-...I/AAAAAAAADlo/wQ1X_ROPi1Q/s512/SANY0004-7.JPG

and any clue what a foot long nut-hatch or nut-gobbler might be
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-...I/AAAAAAAADlk/_x6uoih6yfE/s640/SANY0005-7.JPG
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-...I/AAAAAAAADlg/EV9OKolpV7k/s640/SANY0006-6.JPG

Nutcracker has its own entry

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-...I/AAAAAAAADlc/137ABLb-dxQ/s640/SANY0007-3.JPG

harr1y · Jul 9, 2011

Or heres an auction lot of the 1st editions

http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/8928116

sold for $650 ... i registered ..nosiness got the better of me

Jane Turner · Jul 9, 2011

Cheers - looking like my £20 impulse purchase on Ebay y'day was a good move. It had 45 secs to go when I noticed it. Its looking like an even better purchase than my knockdown copy of the Witherby handbook, cheap because it was heavily annotated. What the seller had missed was that the notes were those of HG Alexander!

harr1y · Jul 9, 2011

Yeah looks like a sound investment ...just remember never to use it as an actual reference book ..looks like the author got his 6 year old daughter to do the illustrations ...

Jane Turner · Jul 9, 2011

They are good for 18thC woodcuts!

Jane Turner · Jul 9, 2011

Here are some more plates

A few megas here!

stevethehydra · Jul 9, 2011

I suspect the "Pied Feldefare" was more likely just a partially leucistic Fieldfare.

The "Nut-Gobber" sounds like a good description of a Nuthatch as far as plumage is concerned, with the only anomaly being that its dimensions have been inexplicably doubled. I wonder if someone somewhere along the line got the measurements mixed up with something like a Green Woodpecker...

stevethehydra · Jul 9, 2011

"Northern Penguin" is clearly a Great Auk, and i'm presuming that "Cook Artic Bird" is a skua, although it looks a bit like a Frigatebird or Tropicbird!

"Red Coot-footed Tringa" - perhaps a Red/Grey Phalarope?

birdboybowley · Jul 10, 2011

But I know what I'm going to be calling Nuthatches from now on....what a brilliant name. Up there with Stick-dicks....

Fop · Jul 10, 2011

So what's a stick dick?

Always loved Bum-barrel and Wind F*cker myself haha!

Chris

Biancone · Jul 10, 2011

Hi Jane,
I'm wondering if there is an entry for Honey Buzzard?
Your book (good find!) seems to date from the century after its first description (Willughby & Ray, 1676) during which it scarcely gets a mention in the literature I've reviewed (except by Gilbert White) until the earliest Victorian ornithologists began to take some notice of it.

Jane Turner · Jul 10, 2011

I've long been after a copy of Willoughby... need 4k...

There is an entry for Bunney. I'll get it for you now

Jane Turner · Jul 10, 2011

Some more alternative names guessed from the descriptions

Pintail - Sea-Pheasant or Cracker

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-...I/AAAAAAAADmw/tEtXv2Wr_L0/s640/SANY0008-3.JPG

Rathsher or Alderman- Ivory Gull - which does not like getting its feet wet, is so tame that you can knock it on the head with a stick and feeds on the dung of Sea Horses (seal?)

and the Dung-hunter or Struntgager - Arctic or Pom Skua, which is of indifferent eating

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-...I/AAAAAAAADm8/h9MeZahtZb8/s640/SANY0004-9.JPG
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-...I/AAAAAAAADm4/eSTvXpSqCDI/s640/SANY0005-9.JPG
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-...I/AAAAAAAADm0/6zJ0rkyhm0A/s640/SANY0006-8.JPG

Biancone · Jul 10, 2011

Jane Turner said:
There is an entry for Bunney. I'll get it for you now

Many thanks Jane, much appreciated. And well anticipated! Seems to be largely derived from Willughby/Willoughby, but you never know with these early books, you do find the occasional gem of personal observation!

Jane Turner · Jul 10, 2011

I have a second edition Bewick, currently off for rebinding, that was stuffed full of hand written personal observations of a Lincolnshire gamekeeper.

James Thomas · Jul 10, 2011

Seems to be a mix up on id for the nut gobbler but you could make it a Jay at a pinch.

18thC Dusky Thrush? (1 Viewer)

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