BEETON'S BOOK OF BIRDS: SHOWING HOW TO REAR AND MANAGE THEM IN SICKNESS AND IN HEALTH. By Samuel Orchart Beeton.

(1862) ND c1880. 8vo (121 x 182mm). Ppxii,352,xx[publisher's catalogue]. Colour plates of birds and eggs, b/w text engravings. Decorative green cloth (printed black and gilt).

"In the following pages the inquirer may depend upon finding simple, sound, and practical information on every subject connected with the keeping of birds. The humblest of our little friends receive the same careful treatment as the most magnificent..." A variety of species of wild birds have a section dedicated to them, as do Nests and Eggs, Preparing and Stuffing Birds and animals, and, Hawking Birds. The thrity or so pages on taxidermy cover reptiles, "batrachians, fish, crustacea, mollusks, insects" as well as birds. The Hawking Birds chapter has sections on: Antiquity of hawking; Varieties of the hawk tribe; How the hawk is trained; Heron hawking; Magpie hawking; Hawk and heron combat; Hawking in Algeria. In addition to the Hawking chapter, several species of birds of prey have a section to themselves, including the hobby, kestrel, merlin, pergegrine falcon, and the ger-falcon. An interesting book presumably compounded from three or so existing publications. The page numbers given in the "Analysis of Contents" bear no resemblance to the actual pagination. First published by Samuel Beeton himself in 1862 (Wellcome Collection), this is a later edition by Ward, Lock and Co., possibly from the 1880s.