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Which is your oldest book about birds? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter crs
- Start date
Nice two volume book 'Birds of Britain' or similar, dated about 1908 - best thing is 'Britain' includes all its colonial territories, so a rather interesting selection of birds!
Unfortunately, the book is at my UK home, so can't remember exact title or date.
Unfortunately, the book is at my UK home, so can't remember exact title or date.
On the picture you posted it says 1853!
Allen S. Moore
Well-known member
Sounds like the book that I was given by a neighbour in 1964 when I was 7. It includes a painting of blue birds of paradise and 2 of New Zealand moas. Differing from modern terminology, there is a picture of what it calls a Queenland rifle-bird. BTW, Jos, the covering of the spine of my 2 volumes has gone, and there's nothing else in my copy to give the title or year of publication.
Allen
dafi
Well-known member
I think thats just the establishment date of the printers rather than the date of publication.
That is not what is customary. So it should be the publication date.
My oldest bird books are one volume of Die Vögel Mitteleuropas by Heinroth, dating from about 1926, and The Cowbirds by Friedmann published 1929. This one with the date at the same place as in your picture.
My very oldest book dates from 1690. It has nothing to do with birds. I had bought it only because it was so old. Its title L'importance du salut. It's more a booklet, wrapped in leather.
My oldest biology related book is from 1912 Herpetologia europea by Schreiber; a German pioneering work on amphibians and reptiles of Europe. It only has a paper cover, and I had to cut open the pages myself.
I have a copy of 'In Birdland with Field Glass and Camera' by Oliver Pike, which is from 1900. What must be some relatively early examples of bird photography in it.
JWN Andrewes
Poor Judge of Pasta.
I have a six volume set of Rev F. O. Morris's A History of British Birds, and a three volume set of his British Birds' Nests and Eggs. I'll check tonight which edition they are, and how old they are, but it'll be late 19th/early 20th century.
James
James
I have a copy of "The Natural History of Selborne" by Gilbert White. The original was written in 1789, my edition was printed in 1833. It cost a few pennies but is absolutely fascinating stuff. Did you know Swallows hibernate like bats in the winter? Or Bullfinches when fed on hempseed often become wholly black? 
tjbirdofprey
Dorset birder in Spain
well looking through my books i found a copy of british birds volume 74, dated january 1981 ( does this count, its sorta a mag). I have some other books that were given to me that look older but i cant find a date.
borealowl47
Darrell Neufeld
oldest birdbook
Last Of the Curlews by Fred Bodsworth, 1966 edition
Last Of the Curlews by Fred Bodsworth, 1966 edition
One of the oldest bird books on my shelves is General & Field Ornithology (1890) by Elliot Coues, a distinguished American ornithologist of his era with a whole list of important publications to his credit (as well as various birds named by & after him). General & Field Ornithology is an excellent book with long sections on bird anatomy & physiology--badly out-of-date of course--which I remember reading with great interest & profit. But what I most remember & where the book profoundly differs from a modern work aimed at the same kind of audience are the long detailed chapters on egg collecting (including elaborate instructions on how to blow, preserve & store the eggs) & on the "collecting" (shooting & subsequent skinning & preserving) of birds for study skins. The part that stuck most with me was a section in which Coues describes how to deal with "bird sanctuaries" where "collecting" was not allowed, specifically how to smuggle guns into them undetected (best bet was "gun cane"--like a sword cane but with a small caliber shotgun rather than a sword). It's hard to think of a modern equivalent to Coues' mindset: I guess hardcore "twitcher" subculture might come closest.
christineredgate
Winner of the Copeland Wildlife Photographer of th
Just going to bookmark this thread,I have a couple of quite old books,with some beautiful etchings and watercolours,but due to the fact the house is full of Dutch bikers!!!will have to leave until their visit ends.
JWN Andrewes
Poor Judge of Pasta.
2nd Edition, M DCCC LXX
Murray Lord
Well-known member
The Coues book can be read online at http://www.archive.org/stream/handbookoffieldg00coue#page/18/mode/2up
It really is worth having a read through to see how much things have changed for the better. As well as the example given, I like:
It really is worth having a read through to see how much things have changed for the better. As well as the example given, I like:
- the section on use of "artificial stimulus" in the field (i.e. alcohol and tobacco)
- recommendations that arsenic be used liberally
- the advice to collectors: "How many kinds of the same bird do you want? - All you can get - with some reasonable limitations; say fifty of a hundred of any but the most abundant and widely diffused species.."
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