''The Ornithology of Australia'' comprises three volumes (of an uncompleted set) of

lithographed Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...

, hand-coloured, illustrations of Australian

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

s with accompanying text. It was authored by

Silvester Diggles Silvester Diggles (24 January 1817 – 21 March 1880) was an Australian artist and musician of British origin, as well as being a noted amateur ornithologist and entomologist. Biography Diggles was born in Liverpool, Lancashire and married Eliz ...

of Brisbane and was originally issued in 21 parts, each part containing six plates (126 plates in all) with short descriptive

letterpress Letterpress printing is a technique of relief printing. Using a printing press, the process allows many copies to be produced by repeated direct impression of an inked, raised surface against sheets or a continuous roll of paper. A worker comp ...

, in imperial

quarto Quarto (abbreviated Qto, 4to or 4º) is the format of a book or pamphlet produced from full sheets printed with eight pages of text, four to a side, then folded twice to produce four leaves. The leaves are then trimmed along the folds to produc ...

format, with the leaves of the plates 39 cm in height. The parts were printed for the author by T.P. Pugh.NLA online catalogue. Altogether, between 1863 and 1875, Diggles, with his niece Rowena Birkett who hand-coloured each plate, produced 325 plates illustrating some 600 Australian birds.Marks (1972). In 1877 Diggles produced what was essentially a two-volume second edition of the previously published work, using 123 of the same plates and renamed ''Companion to Gould's Handbook, or, Synopsis of the birds of Australia, containing nearly one-third of the whole, or about 220 examples, for the most part from the original drawings'', though the spine title was simply ''Diggles' Ornithology''. Volume 1 had 59 plates, volume 2 had 64, printed by Thorne & Greenwell of Brisbane. The title referred to

John Gould John Gould (; 14 September 1804 – 3 February 1881) was an English ornithologist. He published a number of monographs on birds, illustrated by plates produced by his wife, Elizabeth Gould, and several other artists, including Edward Lear, ...

's 1865 book ''

Handbook to the Birds of Australia The ''Handbook to the Birds of Australia'' is a two-volume work published in London in 1865 by the author John Gould. It was published in octavo format (250 x 170 mm), containing some 1290 pages, bound in green cloth with gilt lyrebirds on ...

''. Diggles lacked the funds to continue publishing the series of lithographs. From 1875 his health began to deteriorate, and he died in 1880. His manuscript and original plates, including those unpublished, were later acquired from Diggles’ son by publishing firm

Angus & Robertson Angus & Robertson (A&R) is a major Australian bookseller, publisher and printer. As book publishers, A&R has contributed substantially to the promotion and development of Australian literature.Alison, Jennifer (2001). "Publishers and editors: A ...

which presented them to the

Mitchell Library The Mitchell Library is a large public library and centre of the City Council public library system of Glasgow, Scotland. History The library, based in the Charing Cross district, was initially established in Ingram Street in 1877 following a ...

in Sydney.Whittell (1954). In August 1990 a facsimile edition of ''The Ornithology of Australia'', volume 1, parts 1–7, was published by State Publishing South Australia ().

References

Notes

Sources

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External links

* 1860s non-fiction books 1877 non-fiction books Books about Australian birds Ornithological literature {{bird-book-stub