A General History of Birds. Vol. I [-X]

10 volumes, 4to (279x220 mm). xxxii, 375, [1]; [2], 345, [1]; [2], 416, [2]; [2], 362, [2]; [2], 350, [2]; [2], 336, [2]; [2], 370, [2]; [2], 391, [1]; [2[, 433, [1]; [4], 456; index: [2], 16, [136] pp. Illustrated with 193 numbered plates designed, etched and hand-colored by Latham himself (all tissue guards present). Nicely bound in later quarter beige morocco gilt, panels covered in green cloth, upper edge gilt, marbled edges. Bookplate of Sir Alexander Kay Muir. Some very light marginal foxing on vol. 7, overall a very good, clean copy. “A new edition of the author's General Synopsis of Birds, 1781-85, rewritten and enlarged to include the species treated in the two supplements to that work as well as forms discovered since their publication” (Zimmer, pp. 376-377). The work covers all bird species from every part of the known world with special emphasis on Australia and the South Seas. Latham is often known as the “grandfather of Australian ornithology”. Anker, 277-278; Nissen, IVB, 532.

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