A Shropshire lad - pioneering field guide author and illustrator who is now all but forgotten

Wilfrid Hodges - author and illustrator who loved birds

ALTHOUGH contemporary birders will never have heard of him, author and illustrator Wilfrid Hodges made a real contribution to the development of identification guides with his slim volume, Common British Birds - how to identify them.

Its limitations are obvious  - only 90 species are described, none of them seabirds, and including only two waders Curlew and Common Sandpiper.

Most of his drawings are black and white only and, at least by today's standards, not notably impressive .

But in style and layout, the book paved the way for the phenomenally successful Observer's Book of British Birds which was first published two decades later in 1937.

The book went into three editions between 1913 and 1919, and notable inclusions include species that, 113 years later, are far from 'common', among them Red-backed Shrike, Corncrake (Land Rail), Nightjar, Brambling, Marsh Tit and Lesser Spotted Woodpecker.

Also described is the Hawfinch of which Hodges writes: "Appears to be increasing in numbers in England."

Hodges, whose home was in Ellesmere, Shropshire, concludes his short introduction thus: "I should recommend all bird-lovers to obtain, if possible, a pair of field-glasses as these, even if only moderate in power, will prove of the greatest service."

One of only two colour illustrations - Water Rail (left) and Common Sandpiper

The other colour illustration - from left, Bullfinch, Brambling and Goldfinch

A sample of the text - similar in format to that adopted later by The Observer's Book of British Birds

First published in March 1913, there were subsequent editions in March 1916 and February 1919