THE HISTORY OF THE BIRDS OF BRITAIN. Colour plates and drawings by David Reid-Henry. Text by Colin Harrison.

1988 1st edition. Large 4to (201 x 291mm). Pp224. Colour paintings and b/w illustrations by David Reid-Henry, bibliography. Grey boards, spine titled in gilt.

"The forty-six colour plates in this book were originally commissioned from David Reid-Henry by the publishers H.F. and G. Witherby Ltd for a guide to the birds of Britain. For carious reasons that guide never came to fruition. In this book, with the co-operation of Witherby's, the publishers Collins have used Reid-Henry's superb material, mainly pencil drawings (often unfinished), to illustrate Dr Colin Harrison's informative text, which traces the background to Britain's bird populations and assesses their present and future status." The introductory sections of the book are as follows: The earliest history; The Pleistocene; Pleistocene birds; The recent period; Recent birds; Man-modified Britain; The twentieth century; Final comment; Climatic zones; Classification and sequence. The subsequent 180 pages are arranged species by species.