William Smellie, as a boy, taking a nest of young sparrows from their parents in...

William Smellie, as a boy, taking a nest of young sparrows from their parents in an experiment. The parents kept bringing food to the chicks in the nest set up in a wire cage outside the window. From a story by Smellie in Philosophy of Natural History, 18th century. Handcoloured copperplate engraving from Reverend Thomas Smith’s The Naturalist’s Cabinet, or Interesting Sketches of Animal History, Albion Press, James Cundee, London, 1806. Smith, fl. 1803-1818, was a writer and editor of books on natural history, religion, philosophy, ancient history and astronomy.