The Handbook, as it was often cited, was itself a much enlarged and revised version of H.F. Witherby's Practical Handbook of British Birds (published between 1919 and 1924 as two volumes in three parts).
Some of the plates were by Marinus Adrianus Koekkoek and were licensed after they were painted for Ornithologia Neerlandica, de vogels van Nederland by Eduard Daniel van Oort (published 1922-1935).
The Handbook was reprinted a number of times, until at least the eight impression in 1958. The later printings (they were not described as new editions) having a few pages devoted to "additions and corrections" to previous "impressions", but few of these are of great significance. In only a few cases was the main text correspondingly corrected.
Eventually, it was superseded by The Birds of the Western Palearctic.
Read more about this topic: Handbook Of British Birds