The Natural History of Ireland is a four volume work by William Thompson. The first three volumes were published by Reeve and Benham, London between 1849 and 1851. Volume 4 was published by Henry G. Bohn, London in 1856. The Natural History of Ireland is very influential of later developments.
The parts are:
- Volume 1: Birds, comprising the orders raptores and insessores (1849)
- Volume 2: Birds, comprising the orders rasores and grallatores (1850)
- Volume 3: Birds, comprising the order natatores (1851)
- Volume 4: Mammalia, reptiles and fishes. Also, invertebrata (1856)
edited and published by George Dickie, James Ramsey Garrett and Robert Patterson four years after Thompson's death.
The Natural History of Ireland was the first attempt to produce an account of the fauna of Ireland. "With so much already done pictorially and descriptively, on the subject of British ornithology, it may be considered superfluous to treat of the birds of Ireland in a separate work, but, in the author's opinion, every country should possess a Natural History specially appertaining to itself. In the publications referred to, the birds of Ireland have been but briefly indicated, — a species generally dis- missed in a single line, and so much appearing only in two works; — those of Sir Win. Jardine and Mr. Yarrell".