William Lewin

In 1789 he began to issue his The Birds of Great Britain, with Their Eggs, Accurately Figured, which he had been working on for the previous twenty years.

It included 323 watercolour sketches of each of the 271 of birds and 52 plates of eggs, all which he hand-painted himself for the 60 copy first edition, a total of 19,380 individual paintings.

In 1791 his friend John Latham sponsored Lewin's membership of the Linnean Society.

Lewin also produced a volume on butterflies, "The papilios of Great Britain, systematically arranged, accurately engraved, and painted from nature, with the natural history of each species, from a close application to the subject, and observations made in different countries of this kingdom; as well as from breeding numbers from the egg, or caterpillar, during the last thirty years", in 1795.

The First Edition of Birds of Great Britain and their Eggs almost immediately suffered from being broken-up for the individual watercolors, most of which have, as a consequence, been lost or destroyed.