Plate 78- By William Hewitson

William Chapman Hewitson (1806–1878) was a British naturalist, entomologist, ornithologist, collector, and scientific illustrator. Although financially independent, he devoted much of his life to the study and collection of beetles, butterflies, birds' nests, and eggs, becoming one of the leading natural history figures of the Victorian era.

Early in his career, Hewitson assembled important collections of British beetles (Coleoptera) and butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera). His interests later shifted toward the study of birds' eggs, leading him to publish his influential work British Oology between 1833 and 1842.

Seeking to better understand the breeding habits of migratory birds, Hewitson traveled to the Shetland Islands in 1832. The following year, he joined friends John Hancock and Benjamin Johnson on an expedition to Norway. Their goal was to collect plants, birds, and insects while locating the nesting grounds of migratory species. During their journey into the Arctic Circle, the severe conditions became so challenging that the group survived in part by eating the birds they had shot. Hewitson's diary from this expedition later provided material for ornithological articles published in the Magazine of Zoology, edited by William Jardine.

Hewitson was also active in several leading scientific societies. He became a founding member of the Natural History Society of Northumberland, Durham and Newcastle upon Tyne in 1829, joined the Entomological Society of London in 1846, the Zoological Society of London in 1859, and the Linnean Society of London in 1862.

In addition to his research and collecting, Hewitson was highly regarded as a scientific illustrator. His detailed and accurate illustrations of insects and birds' eggs significantly advanced the documentation and study of natural history during the nineteenth century.