witherby's crowning glory was "the handbook of british birds" (1938–1941). spanning five volumes, it was reprinted a number of times, the later editions having a few pages devoted to corrections and additions to previous editions, but few of these are of great significance and the main text was left untouched. he was made an honorary fellow of the american ornithologists' union in 1928 and was awarded the godman-salvin medal by the bou in 1937. witherby's lark ("alaemon hamertoni") was named for him, in 1905, but is now more commonly known as the lesser hoopoe-lark. two other bird sub-species have been named after him: "emberiza schoeniclus witherbyi" (common reed bunting) and "erithacus rubecula witherbyi" (european robin).