One of the finest and most thorough studies of natural history in the nineteenth century fell under the direction of Sir William Jardine. He made natural history available to all levels of Victorian society by editing and issuing the hugely popular 40 volumes of "The Naturalist's Library" (1833-1842) with hand coloured wood engravings and descriptions of all vertebrate species divided into 4 sections: mammals, birds, fish and insects, each prepared by a leading naturalist. Jardine commissioned experts throughout Europe to write individual volumes on their fields of animal studies. But perhaps the greatest accomplishment of this nine-year undertaking was that each book contained at least thirty splendid engravings by W. H. Lizars. These engravings - some introducing newly discovered species, others portraying now extinct animals - have for over a century and a half been considered to be among the finest pictorial representations of their kind. The engravings were always coloured by artists before publication, and only the subject was hand-coloured leaving the background illustration as the original black engraving.