This is a virtual exhibition of The British warblers : a history with problems of their lives, by H. Eliot Howard. Vol 1-9. London : 1907-1915. Balfour Library shelfmark: Britain 443-453.
The original works are a bit too fragile to display in the library.
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| Unusually, the separate parts as subscribed to by the original owner were not bound. |
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| Front cover of part 3, which must have been stored in bright sunlight at some point during its life, to have caused this chemical damage. |
The lovely volunteers on our
cleaning project drew my attention to this work, which, at first glance at the beautiful plates inside, appears to feature warblers musing on the 'problems of their lives'!
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| Male and female blackcaps. |
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| Detail: Looking a bit melancholy? |
In the UK, warblers include reed warblers, marsh warblers etc. as well as blackcaps, whitethroats, chiffchaffs, firecrests and goldcrests. See the RSPB bird guide for more information: http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/families/warblers.aspx
Henry Eliot Howard was an amateur ornithologist who was highly regarded in the ornithological world, and became an expert in the behaviour of birds. He was a businessman who made his bird observations in his garden overlooking the River Severn. This work on warblers describes their life history, hence the title.
In Howard's obituary in
British Birds, 34 (1941), 195-197
http://www.britishbirds.co.uk/search?id=2016, Percy R. Lowe describes how these observations were not "casual, haphazard observations made now and again when the spirit moved and with no very definite object in view, but close, constant and very purposive daily observations begun before dawn and continued into the early days of June. The results of those observations embodied in the books which Eliot Howard has left behind him have converted the vague and somewhat aimless proceedings of old time field-naturalists into a definite science".
The cover title as shown in the photo above states "FZS, MBOU" after Howard's name, so he was a Fellow of the Zoological Society and a member of the British Ornithologists' Union.
There were glowing book reviews in Auk for all Parts of the work as they were published. In the review for Parts 1-2 of this work, it describes the layout of each Part: 1) bibliographic references; 2) vernacular names of the species; 3) description of the plumage; 4) geographical distribution; 5) life history. http://www.jstor.org/action/doBasicSearch?Query=eliot+warblers&filter=jid%3A10.2307%2Fj101249&Search=Search&wc=on&fc=off&globalSearch=&sbbBox=&sbjBox=&sbpBox=
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| Contents page for Part 3 |
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| Subscribers' note inside Part 3. |
The photogravure plates present in the book were also highly regarded, as described in
Auk, "The numerous and beautiful plates are a fitting complement to the text, which together will mark an epoch in the history of this most interesting group of British birds". According to Wikipedia, photogravure is a "photo-mechanical process whereby a copper plate is coated with a
light-sensitive gelatin tissue which had been exposed to a film
positive, and then etched, resulting in a high quality print that can reproduce the detail and continuous tones of a photograph"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photogravure. These plates definitely do resemble photographs.
Henrik Gronvold (1858-1940) produced the plates for
this work. He was a Danish artist and naturalist. During his childhood Gronvold developed an interest in natural history and drew the animals and birds around him. In 1892 Gronvold was travelling to America via England when he found employment at the Natural
History Museum preparing bird skeletons. He worked there unofficially as an artist for many years. Gronvold's illustrations have appeared in many scientific publications and he also produced many plates of birds eggs, including eggs of the Great Auk for our very own
Professor Alfred Newton! See this article on the Natural History Museum website for more information:
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/art-nature-imaging/collections/art-themes/caught_in_oils/more/gorilla_more_info.htm
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| Plates of eggs from Part 1, and not specifically produced by Gronvold for Newton. |
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| Beautiful details. |
Here are some more amazing examples of plates from Part 1 of this work:
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| Chiff chaff in a lovely naturalistic pose. |
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| "Male blackcaps while fighting for their territory attacked by a male chiff chaff". The energy of this behaviour is really captured here. |
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| "Male blackcap. Attitude assumed when carrying a piece of dead cow-parsley previous to the arrival of a female". The bird looks quite serious here, but with lovely detail. |
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| "Radde's bush-warbler. Immature and adult". Great colours. |
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| Detail of Radde's bush-warbler. The photogravure process creates amazingly fine detail. |
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| "Male blackcap. Attitude assumed during the period of sexual activity". He's looking more chipper! |
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| "Male blackcap. Attitude assumed when the young are handled". The 'broken wing' defence mechanism? |
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| "Male blackcap. Attitude assumed when angry with another male and also sometimes when in presence of the female during the period of sexual activity". Angry bird. |
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These wonderful plates do serve to illustrate the scientific observations Howard was making in this work
. No wonder the warblers look a bit serious sometimes, considering the 'problems' they encounter in their lives, defending territory, and courtship for example
!
