By William MacGillivray
London   Printed for Scott, Webster, and Geary
9" by 6" xv, [1], 631; xii, 503; xii, 768pp.
A scarce collection of three first editions of William MacGillivray's extensive history of British birds.
By William MacGillivray

1837-40 A History of British Birds, Indigenous and Migratory: Including their Organisation, Habits, and Relations; Remarks on Classification and Nomenclature; an Account of the Principal Organs of Birds, and Observations Relative to Practical Ornithology

London   Printed for Scott, Webster, and Geary
9" by 6" xv, [1], 631; xii, 503; xii, 768pp.
A scarce collection of three first editions of William MacGillivray's extensive history of British birds.
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: 4kgs / : 787A42

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Description

First Edition, Illustrated, Publishers' Original Binding, Scarce

A collection of the first three volumes of five of Scottish naturalist and ornithologist William MacGillivray's extensive study of the history of 'British Birds, Indigenous and Migratory,' rarely seen in sets. Each volume is complete in its own right.

Three first editions, published in 1837, 1839, and 1840. 

Volume I: rasores, scrapers, or gallinaceous birds; gemitores, cooers, pigeons; deglubitores, huskers, or conirostral birds; vagatores, wanderers, or crows and allied genera. Collated, complete with nine full page plates and numerous figures in text. 

Volume II: cantatores, songsters. With a description of fifty species of birds which the author has disposed into seven families of Myrmotherinae, Turdinae, Alaudinae, Motacillinae, Saxicolinae, Sylvianae, and Parinae. Collated, complete with four full page plates and numerous figures in text. 

Volume III: reptatores, creepers; scansores, climbers; cuculinae; raptores, plunderers, or rapacious birds; excursores, snatchers; volitatores, gliders; jaculatores, darters. Collated, complete with nine full page plates and numerous figures in text. 

Complete with half titles and explanatory notes.

Condition

In the original publisher's full cloth binding. Externally very smart with only minor shelf wear and some bumping to the head and tail of the spine and extremities, the head and tail of the spine being slightly chipped to vol. I and II. Internally, firmly bound. With some minor faint spotting to the first and last few leaves, and some foxing to the leaves of plates, affecting the nearing leaves slightly. Otherwise, the pages are generally very clean throuhgout. Illustrated with twenty-two full page plates throughout each volume and numerous figures in text throughout, Collated, complete with pl. X to volume II loose but present.

Very Good Indeed

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