the name of several kings of England. See ENGLAND. In the year 1743, the first volume of the History of Edwards, Birds was published in quarto. As the number of his subscribers exceeded even his most sanguine expectations, a second volume appeared in 1747. The third volume was published in 1750; and in 1751 appeared the fourth volume. This being the last which he intended to publish at that time, he seems to have considered it as the most perfect of his productions in natural history; and therefore devoutly offered it up to the great God of nature, in humble gratitude for all the good things which he had received from Him in this world. Our author, in 1758, continued his labours under a new title, that of Gleanings of Natural History. A second volume of the Gleanings was published in 1760. The third part, which formed the seventh and last volume of his works, appeared in 1764. Thus our author, after a long series of years, the most studious application, and the most extensive correspondence in every quarter of the world, concluded a work which contains engravings and descriptions of more than six hundred subjects in natural history not before described or delineated. He likewise added a general index in French and English, which was afterwards perfected with the Linnean names, by Linnaeus himself, who frequently honoured him with his friendship and correspondence. Some time after Mr Edwards had been appointed librarian to the Royal College of Physicians, he was, on St Andrew's Day, in the year 1750, presented by the president and council of the Royal Society with the gold medal, the donation of Sir Godfrey Copley, annually given on that day to the author of any new discovery in art or nature, in consideration of his natural history just then completed. A copy of this medal he had afterwards engraved, and placed under the title in the first volume of his history. He was a few years afterwards elected fellow of the Royal Society and of the Society of Antiquaries, London, and also a member of many of the academies of sciences and learning in different parts of Europe. In return for these honorary distinctions from learned bodies, he presented elegantly-coloured copies of all his works to the Royal College of Physicians, the Royal Society, the Society of Antiquaries, and to the British Museum; and also to the Academy of Sciences at Paris, from which he received a very polite and obliging letter of thanks by their then secretary M. Defouchy. His collection of drawings, which amounted to upwards of nine hundred, were purchased by the Earl of Bute. They contain a great number of British as well as foreign birds, and other animals hitherto not accurately delineated or described. After the publication of the last work, having arrived at his seventieth year, he found his sight beginning to fail, and his hand losing its wonted steadiness. He retired from public employment to a little house which he had purchased at Plaistow, previously to which he disposed of all the copies as well as plates of his works. The conversation of a few select friends, and the perusal of a few select books, were the amusement of the evening of his life; and now and then he made an excursion to some of the principal cities in England, particularly to Bristol, Bath, Exeter, and Norwich. Some years before his death, the alarming deprestation of a cancer, which baffled all the efforts of medical skill, deprived him of the sight of one of his eyes; and he also suffered much from the stone, to which at different periods of his life he had been subject; but in the severest paroxysms of pain he was scarcely known to utter a single complaint. Having completed his eightieth year, emaciated with age and sickness, he died, deservedly lamented, on the 23rd of July 1773.