There was an old chess book no longer in print by Reinfeld called British Chess. At one time British players were probably among the best in the world.
Henry Bird was one of the players.
Beside the opening f4 Bird created a chess variant. The chess variant influenced Capablanca to create his version of a chess variant.
There are many books on Bird, and the Bird opening.
Soltis wrote a monograph on the opening in the 60's for Chess Digest.
Books by Henry Bird:
An Analysis of Railways in the United Kingdom
Chess Masterpieces (1875)
The Chess openings Considered Critically and Practically (1877)
Chess History and Reminiscences (1893)
Modern Chess
Chess for Beginners
Chess Novelties (1895)
Chessville.com has a Ebook by Bird on the history of chess.
See
HENRY EDWARD BIRD
The Opening:
Bird of course did not invent the opening. The following is the first known game of a Bird Opening, or Dutch Attack.
[Event "Europe"]
[Site "Europe"]
[Date "1620.??.??"]
[Round "0"]
[White "Greco,Gioacchino"]
[Black "NN"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Eco "A02"]
1.f4 e5 2.fxe5 Qh4+ 3.g3 Qe4 4.Nf3 Nc6 5.Nc3 Qf5 6.e4 Qe6 7.d4 Qe7 8.Bg5 Qb4
9.a3 Qxb2 10.Na4 1-0
The first known game by Bird playing the Bird.
[Event "London m1"]
[Site "London"]
[Date "1856.??.??"]
[Round "0"]
[White "Bird,Henry Edward"]
[Black "Falkbeer,Ernst Karl"]
[Result "1/2"]
[Eco "A03"]
1.f4 d5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 Bf5 4.e3 a6 5.Bd3 Nh6 6.Nc3 e6 7.a3 Be7 8.0-0 Bxd3
9.Qxd3 Nf5 10.Nxd5 Qxd5 11.e4 Qd7 12.exf5 exf5 13.c4 f6 14.Be3 0-0-0 15.b4 Rhe8 16.Rfe1 Bf8
17.Rad1 h6 18.d5 g5 19.Qc2 Nxb4 20.axb4 Bxb4 21.Re2 Re4 22.Bf2 Rde8 23.Rxe4 fxe4 24.Nd4 e3
25.Bg3 Bc5 26.Qe2 Re4 27.Nb3 Ba7 28.Kh1 gxf4 29.Bh4 Qa4 30.Bxf6 Bb6 31.c5 Qxb3 32.cxb6 Qxb6
33.d6 cxd6 34.Rc1+ Kb8 35.Qd3 Re8 36.Qg6 Qb5 37.Bd4 Qd7 38.Qxh6 e2 39.Re1 Qe7 40.Qxf4 Rf8
41.Rxe2 Rxf4 42.Rxe7 Rxd4 43.h3 b5 44.g4 b4 45.g5 b3 46.g6 Rd1+ 47.Kg2 b2 48.g7 Rg1+
49.Kxg1 b1=Q+ 50.Kg2 1/2
Note that there are probably 75 games known prior to the above game with the opening.
In 1856 Bird play the Opening more than several times.
Then he picked it up again in 1873 in a lot of games.
The most famous Bird Opening is the following.
Found in many chess books.
[Event "Amsterdam"]
[Site "Amsterdam"]
[Date "1889.08.??"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Lasker,Emanuel"]
[Black "Bauer,Johann Hermann"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Eco "A03"]
1.f4 d5 2.e3 Nf6 3.b3 e6 4.Bb2 Be7 5.Bd3 b6 6.Nf3 Bb7 7.Nc3 Nbd7 8.0-0 0-0
9.Ne2 c5 10.Ng3 Qc7 11.Ne5 Nxe5 12.Bxe5 Qc6 13.Qe2 a6 14.Nh5 Nxh5 15.Bxh7+ Kxh7 16.Qxh5+ Kg8
17.Bxg7 Kxg7 18.Qg4+ Kh7 19.Rf3 e5 20.Rh3+ Qh6 21.Rxh6+ Kxh6 22.Qd7 Bf6 23.Qxb7 Kg7 24.Rf1 Rab8
25.Qd7 Rfd8 26.Qg4+ Kf8 27.fxe5 Bg7 28.e6 Rb7 29.Qg6 f6 30.Rxf6+ Bxf6 31.Qxf6+ Ke8 32.Qh8+ Ke7
33.Qg7+ Kxe6 34.Qxb7 Rd6 35.Qxa6 d4 36.exd4 cxd4 37.h4 d3 38.Qxd3 1-0
I myself rarely tried the BIrd in a tournament. After reading the Soltis monograph I tried it several times in CCLA Tournaments. But CHess is more than openings. But I give it a lot tries against several computer programs with good results.