Background:

These prints are from the First Edition of Rev. Francis Morris' (1810-1893) History of British Birds, dating to 1851.   Morris authored a number of natural history books and guides to the estates of the nobility in the second half of the 1800s.

The color plates were engraved and printed by Benjamin Fawcett (1808-1893).  The illustrations of birds printed by Fawcett are regarded as some of the finest natural history illustrations  of the century and are reminiscent of the bird books of Thomas Bewick.  The wood engravings shown here were finished with added hand-coloring.