E | Soffer Ornithology Collection

Soffer Ornithology Collection Notes (alphabetical by author)

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Eaton, Elon Howard (1866-1934). Birds of New York.

Eckert, Allan W. (text), and Karl E. Karalaus (paintings and drawings). The owls of North America.

Eckhout, Albert (ca/ 1607-65), (Schaeffer, E., introduction) Birds of Brazil Albert Eckhout reproductions of paintings from the Hofloessnitz Castle, Saxony

Eckstorm, Fannie Hardy (1865-1946). The Bird Book.

Ede, Basil (1931) Birds of town and village

Ede, Basil (1931-). Wild Birds of America The Art of Basil Ede.

Edwards, George (1694-1773). (The Second Black-capped Lory).

Edwards, George (1694-1773). Gleanings of Natural History.

Eggers, Miniature bird monographs for children

Ehrenberg, Christian Gottfried (1795-1876). Symbolae Physicae, c.1.

Ehrenberg, Christian Gottfried (1795-1876). Symbolae Physicae, c.2.

Eisenmann, Eugene (1906). The Species of Middle American Birds.

Eisho. Eisho Hyaku-Cho Gafu (Eisho’s Album of 100 Varieties of Birds).

Ellenius, Allan. Bruno Liljefors.

(Elliot, Daniel Giraud [1835-1914]) (editor, Thorpe, Adrian) (artist, Wolf, Joseph [1820-1899]). The birds of Daniel Giraud Elliot.

Elliot, Daniel Giraud (1835-1915). A Monograph of the Paradiseidae or Birds of Paradise.

Elliot, Daniel Giraud (1835-1915). A Monograph of the Bucerotidae or Family of the Hornbills.

Elliot, Daniel Giraud (1835-1915). North American Shore Birds.

Elphick, J. Birds, the art of ornithology

Emanuel, Victor, One more warbler A life with birds

Engelmann, Wilhelm (1808-1878). Bibliotheca Historico-Naturalis.

Ennion, Eric (Arnold Robert[1900-1981]) (introduction and commentary by John Busby). The living birds of Eric Ennion.

von Erlanger, Carlo Freiherr (1872-1904). Forschungsreise durch Süd-Schoa Galla und die.

von Erlanger, Carlo Freiherr (1872-1904). Beiträge zur Avivfauna Tunesiens.

Etchécopar, R(obert) D(aniel), and François Hüe (d. 1972) (illustrated by Paul Barruel [1901-1982] and François Berille). Les oiseaux / de / Chine / de Mongolie et de Corée / non passereaux.

Etchécopar, R(obert) D(aniel), and François Hue (d. 1972) (illustrated by Patrick Suiro and C. G. Armani). Les oiseaux / de/ Chine / de Mongolie et de Corée / passereaux.

Etchécopar, R(obert) D(aniel), and François Hüe (illustrated by Paul Barruel [1901-1982]; translated by P. A. D. Hollom). The birds / of / North Africa / from the Canary Islands to the Red Sea.

Evans, Evan M. The Important Ornithological Library Formed by the Late Dr. Evan Morton Evans.

Evenhuis, Neal L. (ed) Barefoot on lava The journals and correspondence of naturalist R. C. L. Perkins in Hawaii

Everett, Michael. The / birds of paradise.

Eyton, T(homas) C(ampbell) (1809-1880). A history of the rarer British Birds.

Eaton, Elon Howard (1866-1934).

Birds of New York 29.1 x 23.7 cm. Two "parts" (volumes). Original green cloth, spines in five compartments, the upper four with gilt lettering. New York State Education Department, New York State Museum, Memoir 12. Albany, University of the state of New York. (First edition).

Part 1. 1910, title page. 1909, spine. No signatures. Pp. blank, [1-2]3-18 (2, folded partially colored map of life zones printed on one side only of thin paper)19-74(12, six double page tables of spring migration arrivals printed on one side only of thin paper)75-86(150 comprising section 1, parts 1-15, section 2, parts 1-18, section 3, parts 1-21 and section 4, parts 1-21 of double page tables of local lists printed on one side only of thin paper)87-501. 1, title and contents; 2, State of New York, Education Department; 3, letter of transmittal; 4, letter of acceptance; 5, preface; 9, illustrator's note; 11, summary of state avifauna; 19, state life zones; 42, Mt Marcy region; 50, increase and decrease of species; 58, suggestions to bird students; 65, migration; 72, spring arrivals; 75, published local lists; 80, county schedules; 88, classification; 91, accounts of genera and species; 391, plates; 475, index including English and Latin names. Contains colored plates1-42 after Louis Agassiz Fuertes printed on one side only of thick card stock, not included in pagination, each preceded by a leaf of thin paper containing facing identifying letter-press. The leaves of letter-press are included in the pagination although they do not contain printed page numbers. Also contains 24 unnumbered distribution maps, six unnumbered text line sketches and 67 unnumbered uncolored text photographic illustrations of various species.

Part 2. 1914 (title page and spine). [1]82-34843-458(the eight gatherings 35-42 corresponding to the 64 thin leaves of letter-press, pp. 545-672 for plates 43-106 do not contain the implied signature numbers)[$1 signed]; 360 ll. 1, title and contents; the University of the State of New York, Regents; 3, introductory note; 5, ecology; 46, economic value of birds; 51, status of bird laws; 52, special measures for increasing bird life; 58, bird refuges; 59, private preserves; 61, accounts of genera and species (continued from part 1); 545, plates; 673, index. Contains colored plates 43-106 not included in pagination, each with facing leaf of identifying letter-press printed on thin paper and included in pagination. Also contains 64 unnumbered uncolored photographic text illustrations.

This is one of the great works of regional American ornithology ranking with Dawson's works on the Birds of Washington (1909) and the Birds of California (1923), Forbush's Birds of Massachusetts… (1925-1929) and Roberts' Birds of Minnesota (1932) as the finest state bird books of the first half of the 20^th century. In addition to the extraordinary amount of local information, it contains the first collected printing of Fuertes' greatest set of illustrations of American birds. These 106 four-color prints were subsequently reproduced on thinner paper for the second edition of this work printed simultaneously, for a separately issued folder of prints (1916 and later) and for T. Gilbert Pearson's Birds of America (1917, 1936 and later printings). The series, in these various formats, is second only to Audubon's Birds of America in all its apparitions, as a popular depiction of the American avifauna.

Eaton considered 411 species to have been reliably recorded in New York State. For each, he provides information on synonymy including the original designation and the first designation from New York state; a description with measurements; field marks; local and general distribution; migration, arrival and departure dates; haunts and habits; and nests and eggs.

Although parts 1 and 2 of both the first and the much commoner second edition of this work were initially issued as books in 1910 and 1914 respectively, part 1 corresponds to volume three of four volumes of the 63^rd annual report of of the New York State Museum (1909) and part 2 to volume three of three volumes of the 66^th annual report (1912). The two editions contain the same text. They differ in the following particulars:

1. Most importantly, the present first edition contains the colored plates printed on heavy stock which makes them sit flatter and seem more substantial than those in the second edition and subsequent collections all of which were printed on the same paper as the rest of the book.

2. In the first edition, each plate is accompanied by a leaf of identifying letter press which is printed on thin paper. In the second edition and later versions, the letter-press appears on the verso of the preceding plate.

3. The second edition contains "second edition" on the spine of the green cloth binding which lacks the raised ridges present in the binding of the first edition.

4. Part 1 of the first edition lacks signatures that are present in part 1 of the second edition.

5. The life zone map in the first edition is folded and printed on thin paper whereas it is contained on two pages of regular paper in the second edition.

6. The unpaginated tables on spring migration and local lists are printed on one side only of thin paper in the first edition whereas they are printed on both sides of regular paper in the second edition.

Trinity, p. 80; Wood, p. 328; Zimmer, p. 190. Inexplicably absent from Ripley & Scribner though listed in Yale on-line catalog as well of those of all major libraries and collections.

Eckert, Allan W. (text), Karalaus, Karl E. (paintings and drawings)

The owls / of North America / (north of Mexico) / all the species and subspecies illustrated in / color and fully described 31.0 x 22.6 cm. [i-viii]ix[x-xii]xiv-xxii[xxiii-xxv][1-2]3-278. Publisher's henna cloth with double gilt-ruled frame enclosing gilt title on upper cover, gilt lettering to spine. Pictorial endpapers. Pictorial dust jacket with original price of $29.95 on upper flap. Garden City, New York, Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1974.

i, Half-title; ii, books illustrated and written by artist and author; iii, title page with uncolored vignette; iv, design by M. Franklin Plympton; ISBN 0-385-08758-6; copyright 1973; first edition after limited and collector's editions; v, dedication; vi, blank; vii, contents; ix, list of color plates; x, blank; xi, introduction; 1, half-title; 3 species and subspecies accounts, Tyto alba pratincola-Bubo virginianus wapacutho, comprising 59 forms; 262, comparison tables; 265, glossary; 268, bibliography (almost 300 entries); 274, general index including English and Latin names for birds. Contains: colored plates I-LIX (LIX frontispiece), so enumerated in list and on text pages facing various series of plates, printed on both sides, not included in pagination; most plates full-page, three double-paged, two half-page; 53 unnumbered uncolored half-tone full pages of numerous sketches in half-tone; 59 unnumbered distribution maps.

This is a copiously illustrated monograph with an extraordinary amount of meticulously systematized information about each species. Thus, each account, even for subspecies, includes most or all of the following specific sections: scientific name and original description (references); other names; distinguishing features; shape at rest; shape in flight; flight pattern; weight; total length; wingspan; individual wing length; tail length; beak length; legs, feet, talons; eyes and vision; ears and hearing; ear tufts, plumage, annual molt; voice; sexual differences: size, coloration, voice; mortality and longevity; coloration and markings: adult, juvenile; general habits and characteristics; habitat and roosting; enemies and defense; hunting methods and carrying of prey; food, feeding habits, wastes; courtship and mating; annual broods, nest, nesting habits; eggs; incubation and brooding characteristics; young and family life characteristics; distribution in North America (map); migration; economic influence.

Although they had written and illustrated books with natural history themes, this was the first ornithological work for the author and for the artist. They subsequently collaborated on another, less focused ornithological book, Wading Birds of North America(1981).

This original edition listed by AMNH, Cornell, Harvard, Trinity, Yale. The book was reprinted under a different imprint in 1987.

Eckhout Albert (ca. 1607-1665), (Schaeffer, E. introduction)

Birds of Brazil / Albert Eckhout / reproductions of paintings from the Hofloessnitz Castle, Saxony 46.0 x 31.0 cm. Printed in parallel columns of English and Portuguese on one side only of loose ochre-colored card sheets. Five preliminary unnumbered folios followed by 20 folio sheets with mounted plates (34.5 x 26.0 cm) printed in color half-tone and numbered 4-23 as indicated by embossed numbers in lower right hand corners. The plates mounted within embossed frames. The 25 folios contained loosely in ochre-colored card portfolio with black printed title page on upper surface, credits and publication data on lower cover. Rio de Janeiro, Livrarier AGIR Editoria 1970 (first printing, 5,000 copies).

First preliminary folio, title; second, contents; third-fifth folio, introduction by E. Schaeffer; folios 4-23

Eckhout was a Dutch painter who was a contemporary of Piso and Marcgrave in Brazil and who executed paintings of Brazilian landscapes, inhabitants and birds. These bird paintings are surprisingly bad, perhaps because the specimens used by the artist were in poor condition or even partly reconstituted from different species. Their identification was determined by Helmut Sick. Clearly, Eckhout was not a student of ornithology.

OCLC lists about 30 copies.

Eckstorm, Fannie Hardy (1865-1946).

The Bird Book 18.2 x 13.1 cm. [A]⁶[B]⁸C-S⁸T⁶χ⁴[$1 signed]; 152 ll. Pp. [i-ii]iii-xii[1-2]3-282(10, publisher's advertisements). Original publisher's blue cloth with yellow ornithological design and black lettering on upper cover and spine. Boston, D. C. Heath & Co., 1901.

i, Title; ii, copyright and printer designation (Plimpton Press); iii, preface; vii, contents; xi, illustrations; 1, water birds in their homes: little studies in environment; 67, structure and comparison: little studies in differentiation; 121, problems of bird life: little studies in zoological theory;175, some common land birds: little studies in the art of observation; 263, appendix; 277, index. Contains uncolored line-cut figures 1-56 including 32 in text and 24 that are full-page, printed on one side only, and not included in pagination. Also contains zoogeographical map of North America.

According to the publisher's advertisement, this volume cost 60 cents and was intended as part of the science curriculum for Grade VII. It may be a book for children but it covers some big concepts and is exceptionally well written. The illustrations are quite attractive and I certainly wonder whether it was the author, herself, who did them. She thanks C. J. Maynard for reading the manuscript but does not identify the artist.

Fanny Hardy Eckstorm was the daughter of a Maine outdoorsman and fur trader. She was a graduate of Smith College and the author of a number of books on subjects of interest in Maine. She was particularly noted for her works on the lumber industry and on the Penebscot indians. She was among a cadre of interesting serious female ornithologists of the late 19^th and early 20^th century who included also Florence Merriam Bailey, Mabel Osgood Wright, Olive Thorne Miller, and Neltje Blanchan. Amongst these women, only Florence Merriam Bailey was occasionally able to avoid the pretense of targeting her books to children.

The work is present in the libraries of AMNH, Cornell, Harvard, Yale and Trinity.

Ede, Basil (1931-)(text by W.[illiam]D.[onald] Campbell [1905-])

Birds of town / and village 29.0 x 23.5 cm. Pp. [1-4]5-154[155-156]. Publisher’s green cloth, gilt lettering to spine. Green endpapers. London, Country Life Books, 1975(1965), sixth impression.

1, Half-title; 2, blank; 3, title; 4, Copyright, Country Life Limited, 1965; published for Country Life Books by Hamlyn Publishing Group, Astronaut House, Feltham, Middlesex, England; printed by Balding & Mansell Limited, Wisbech; ISBN 0 600 43021 9; 5, foreword by H. R. H. Prince Philip; 6, blank; 7, contents; 9, introduction; 12, blank; 13, text and plates. Contains colored plates 1-36, so enumerated in contents and on facing leaf of text, printed in half-tone on gray coated paper, one side only with both sides of sheet included in pagination.

This work covers 56 common English birds that are shown on 36 colored plates. It was a great commercial success and went through many printings. Basil Ede’s history is quite extraordinary. Early on he was a seaman. After achieving financial freedom as an ornithological artist, he suffered a cerebrovascular accident resulting in a right hemiparesis and became as facile painting with his left hand as he had been with his right. His pictures are extremely ornamental and precisely correct in every detail. They remind of ornamental prints by Roger Tory Peterson. The birds of both artists are sometimes so perfect as to seem unreal and without life. The pictures in this book, of birds that Ede knows well, are not as appealing to me as those he later did of American birds which had a certain Audubonesque quality.

The text by Campbell, written in a popular style, is well informed and interesting.

Listed by Cornell, Trinity and Yale but not by AMNH and Harvard.

Ede, Basil (1931-)

Wild Birds of America The Art of Basil Ede 34.0 x 24.3 cm. Pp. [i-vi]vii-ix[x]1-125[126-128]; 69 ll. Publisher's green cloth with gilt ornithological design of upper cover and gilt lettering to spine. Gray endpapers. Pictorial dust jacket. Tuscaloosa, the Warner Collection of Gulf States Paper Corporation, 1991. Distributed by Harry N. Abrams, New York. Printed by Amilcare Pizzi, S. p. A., Milan.

i, Half-title; 3, title; 4, dedication, publication information; 5, contents; vii, foreword by H. R. H. The Prince Philip; ix, preface by Walter H. Annenberg; 1, portraits of America's spirit by Jack Warner; 5, four centuries of avian portraiture by Robert M. Peck; 13, the plates; 123, list of illustrations; 127, production credits. Contains 96 pages of unnumbered colored plates printed on both sides of leaves, most full-page but including three pages that contain two plates and one folded double-page counted as a single page but containing two full-page plates. Also contains two colored text sketches and 14 unnumbered uncolored text illustrations including four that are full-page. All illustrations included in pagination.

Warner was the chief executive of the Gulf States Paper Corporation and commissioned Ede, an English ornithological artist, to paint a large portrait of every American bird. Ede suffered a stroke in 1989 and the present series represents the part of the commission which he was able to complete. He had also painted a series of pictures of bird of eastern Pennsylvania for Annenberg when the latter was ambassador to England. Otherwise he is known for his depictions of British birds.

Ede is an ornithological artist of great talent who, for whatever reason, is often overlooked in anthologies of ornithological art for the latter half of the 20^th century. Perhaps the reason for this omission is that he is amongst the most commercially successful. The present work indicates the magnitude of this oversight. The pictures are superb and closer to Audubon in style and in dramatic poses than any other present day artist. The work is nicely printed as well and the result is an exceptionally beautiful book. The text by Peck gives a history of ornithological art concerned with North American birds.

This fine book seems to have escaped much public notice. It is absent from the on-line catalogs of Cornell, Harvard, Yale, Trinity and the American Museum of Natural History.

Edwards, George (1694-1773)

(The Second Black-capped Lory) Plate 171 from A Natural History of Uncommon Birds and some other rare and undescribed Animals, Quadrupedes, Reptiles, Fishes, Insects, &c. Wove paper. 33.0 x 25.4 cm. London, W. Gardiner and Messrs. Robinsons, 1802-1806.

This is an etched plate that is printed in contra épreuve on large paper from a special edition of Edwards' work that was published 1802-1806. The print was trimmed from its original size of about 48 x 31 cm. Ordinary copies of Edwards are approximately 30 x 23 cm. The original edition of this, the first of two closely relates works by Edwards, was published privately, 1743-1751.

The technique of printing in contra épreuve (counter proof, reverse printing) involves making the first etched print and applying it, while still moist, to a second sheet of paper. The second counter proof print differs from the first, and ordinary etching in the following points: there is no plate margin; the picture is the mirror image of the ordinary print and is oriented identically to the original painting from which the print was copied; the etched lines are very weak and can be virtually invisible.

Prints done in contra épreuve are rare because they are so difficult to produce. However, they resemble closely the original painting and are far superior to ordinary prints. This print was advertised as an "original painting" and comes from an edition of only 25 copies that was printed on large paper 1802-1806. Other important works for which a few copies printed in contra épreuve are known include Latham's General Synopsis of Birds (six copies, colored by Sarah Stone) and most of the works of Maria Sybille Merian who produced a few copies of her various books by this technique for special clients and patrons.

One of the 25 large-paper copies of Edwards printed in contra épreuve was sold as lot 13 by Sotheby's London on 10/25/1995.

Edwards, George (1694-1773).

Gleanings / of / Natural History / Exhibing Figures of / Quadrupeds, Birds, Insects, Plants, &c. / most of which, have not, till now been either Figured or Described, / with / Descriptions of seventy (one hundred, eighty-five) different subjects, / Designed, Engraved, and Coloured after Nature, / on Fifty (Fifty, Fifty-two) copper-plate Prints Three volumes designated V, VI VII on spines but can be considered I, II, III, and so designated on last two title pages(vide infra). Laid paper without catchwords. 4^o. Parallel texts in English and French. Contemporary full green straight-grained morocco with gilt roll panel, corner gilt decorations. Spine with five gilt-ruled and paneled double raised bands, gilt lettering in second, third and sixth compartments, gilt star designs in first, fourth, fifth and sixth. Small (ca. 2 cm diameter) armorial (?) symbol or design effaced from center of upper covers. Dentelles with gilt roll panel. Marbled endpapers with old bookplates removed from pastedown and flyleaf. AEG. London, for the author, 1758 (1760, 1764).

(Volume V) [Part I.] π⁴a-i²B-Ee²[$1 signed]; 78 ll. Pp. (8)[i]ii-xxxv[xxxvi-xl][1]2-108. π1r, blank; π1v, English title; π2r, French title; π2v, blank; π3r, half-title with engraved design; π3v, blank; π4r, dedication; π4v, blank; i-xxxv(1), preface; xxxvi-xl, list of (209) encouragers; 1-108, accounts of species. Contains uncolored elaborate engraved frontispiece with GEORGII EDVARDI / ORNITHOLOGIA NOVA at base and hand-colored engraved plates 211-260 drawn and etched by Edwards. Also contains uncolored engraved design on half-title, two wood-engraved tail pieces and one headpiece.

(Volume VI) Part II. π²*a²B-Ff²; 60 ll. Pp. (8)109-120. π1r, blank; π1v, English title; π2r, French title; π2v, blank; *a1r-2r, dedication; *a2v, blank; 109-216 accounts of species; 217-220, catalog of names of species in English, French and Latin for plates 211-310. Contains colored plates 261-310.

(Volume VII) Part III. π²*a²a-b²B-Kk² ; 72 ll. Pp. (8)[i]ii-vii(1)221-347(1). π1r, blank; π1v, English title; π2r, French title; π2v, blank; *a1r-v, dedication; *a2r-v, names of subscribers added since publication of the second part (68, including Benjamin Franklin); i, preface; 221-324, accounts of species; 325, catalog of names of species in English, French and Latin for plates 311-362; 327, catalog of names in English and French of all species figured in Natural History of Birds and Gleanings of Natural History in generical order. Contains colored plates 311-362, one head-piece and one tail piece. Bound into the third volume but not integral to it are: Addenda laid paper with catchwords. 4^o. No signatures. Pp. [27]28-38. 27, leaf explaining that the following four accounts were communicated by Edwards to the Royal Society and that before his death, Edwards had expressed his desire that they be "printed together to complete his Natural History". 28-38, four species accounts, each with a folded uncolored etching drawn by Edwards and etched by J. Lodge. Linnaeus, Sir C. A / Catalogue / of the / Birds, Beasts, Fishes, Insects, Plants &c. / contained in / Edwards's Natural History, / in seven volumes, / with their Latin names. Laid paper without catchwords. 4^o. π²B-D²; 8 ll. Pp. [1-5]6-15[16]London, for J. Robson, Bookseller, 1776. 1, Title; 2, blank; 3, letter in Latin from Linnaeus to Robson dated Aug. 1, 1775; 4, blank; 5, catalog of species on plates 1-362 with English and Latin names, the latter from Linnaeus; 15, note to binder; 16, advertisements by Robson for Moses Harris's Aurelian and English Lepidoptera

This work is a continuation of A Natural History of Uncommon Birds (1743-1751) by Edwards and the plates here are numbered sequentially with respect to the first work. However, Edwards must have felt some ambivalence on this score since the pagination for these three volumes does not follow that of the first work but is successive amongst these three volumes as though he considered them an entity independent of A Natural History..

This work has always been greatly admired. Edwards was a protégé of Sir Hans Sloane 1660-1753), the founder of the British Museum. Sloane was an influential physician and arranged a job for Edwards as Librarian of the College of Physicians, meanwhile encouraging him always in his ornithological illustrations. Edwards learned etching from Catesby, another protégé of Sloane. Sloane had a great interest in the new world (he wrote an important work on the natural history of Jamaica) and it is not surprising that both Catesby and Edwards made major contributions in this area. William Bartram sent Edwards many specimens and the illustrations by Edwards that resulted were the first for these American species including several wood warblers that he called "flycatchers" in the present work.

While Edwards provided only vernacular names, Linnaeus latinized them in 1776 for a brief work published, and probably inspired by James Robson, the bookseller to whom Edwards left all his unsold material. Some copies of Edwards, such as this one, have that work as well as four additional accounts of species bound at the end, presumably by Robson. This copy also has an unusual frontispiece that replaces a portrait of Edwards found in most copies and illustrated on page 90 of Christine Jackson's Bird Etchings (1985), chapter five of which is devoted to Edwards.

The English and French editions of the work are not always found interleaved as they are here. Zimmer tells us (p.197) that the translation into French, at least for A Natural History.., was done by David Durand, however, Edwards had lived and traveled extensively in Europe before writing these volumes and Mrs. Jackson states on page 92 of Bird Etchings "Not many authors today could describe in English and French each bird and other 'curious' creature(s) they were illustrating"

The various issues and editions of Edwards are a quagmire for the bibliographer. The present copy was clearly bound after 1776 but Zimmer describes two apparent editions with the same dates and this one seems to correspond with the first of those. A curious feature of the collation of this work by both Anker (#126) and Zimmer is that they ascribe the xxxv(1) pp. preface to the second (1760) volume, whereas it is here in the first volume (1758) where one might expect it.

A very beautiful large-paper edition of the work with the plates printed in contra-épreuve was issued (1802-1805) in an edition of 25 copies. Plates from that work are sometimes mistaken for original paintings.

Wood, p. 329; Zimmer, p. 192-203. This work is not uncommon and is present in all major ornithological libraries. However, the Addenda and the catalog by Linnaeus are absent from most copies, the latter sometimes being separately cataloged.

Eggers, John H. (Lowe, Samuel, publisher)

No title (Miniature monographs of North American birds for children). 7.0x 5.5 cm. Nineteen monographs plus one in duplicate, each containing six printed leaves including the upper and lower covers which are integral parts of the text. Kenosha, Wisconsin, Samuel Lowe Company, 1941.

Upper cover, recto of each monograph is a full-page colored plate, the verso contains the beginning of the text and, at its base “copyright 1941, John H. Eggers, printed in U. S. A.”. At the base of the second leaf is printed “Samuel Lowe Company, Publishers, Kenosha Wis.” In addition to the upper cover, each monograph contains two other full-page colored plates, a double-paged colored plate, and three to five colored text illustrations. The colors are printed in half-tone.

The work contains life histories and is intended for children. The species described are: Ruby-throated Hummingbird; Bob White; Flicker; Downy Woodpecker; Blue Jay; Barn Swallow; Chickadee (with duplicate); White-breasted Nuthatch; House Wren; Catbird; Robin; Cardinal; Starling; Meadowlark; Bobolink; Baltimore Oriole; Red-winged Blackbird; Scarlet Tanager; Song Sparrow.

This is a very rare work. OCLC lists only one site, North Texas State, which has a collection of miniatures that includes eight of the present series, including one on the Bluebird that isn’t present here. So there were probably a total of 20 monographs.

The author contributed many miniature books for children some as early as 1916. He is said to have collaborated with Thornton W. Burgess on a book entitled “Bowser the hound meets his match”, published around 1928. The publisher, Lowe, apparently worked at one time for the Whitman Publishing Company and may have been associated with some early comic books.

Ehrenberg, Christian Gottfried (1795-1876)

Symbolae Physicae / seu / Icones et Descriptiones / Avium / quae Itinere / per / Africam Borealem et Asiam / Occidentalem / Friderici Guilelmi Hemprich / et / Christiani Godofredi Ehrenberg / Medicinae et Chirurgiae Doctorum / Studio / Novae aut Illustratae Redierunt / Percensuit / et / Regis Jussu et Impensis / Edidit / Dr. C. G. Ehrenberg / Decas Secunda / Berolini ex Officina Academica / Venditur a Mittlero / MDCCCXXVIX Contains hand-colored lithographic plates “Zoologica I. Aves” XI-XX, 49.8 x 35.0 cm, loosely inserted in gray printed boards with upper cover as transcribed above. The lower cover reads as follows: Index Decades Secundae / XI. CENTROPUS superciliosus adultus. / XII. CENTROPUS superciliosus iuvenis. / XIII. FRINGILLA CARDUELIS rufibarba. / CARDUELIS effrenata. / CARDUELIS frenata. / XIV. VULTUR eulophus. / XV. PTEROCLES guttatus. / XVI. PTEROCLES coronatus. / XVII. IBIS religiosa habessinica. / IBIS religiosa aethiopica. / XVIII. IBIS Hemprichii. / XIX. FALCO schistaceus. / XX. CORVUS GARRULUS stridens.

This is the unrecorded second decade of birds for Ehrenberg’s monumental work on the fauna and flora of North Africa and western Asia. Ehrenberg and Hemprich collected their specimens on expeditions carried out 1820-1825. Hemprich died in the field. The complete work as described in Junk Rara, and less exhaustively in the BM(NH) catalogue, was published 1828-1900 and contained 146 plates of which 128 were colored. Included was a single decade of birds containing text (1828-1833) as well as 10 colored plates (I-X, 1828) and more text with one skeletal plate of Abdim’s Stork in “Symbolae physicae seu icones adhuc ineditae”(1899-1900). The species described for the first time in the first decade of birds are reviewed by Dresser and Blanford in the Ibis, 1874, pp. 335-343.

No bibliography describes this second decade of which, according to Julius Steiner of Asher Rare Books, there are two other copies respectively at the British Museum of Natural History (unlisted in their catalogue) and the Berlin Zoological Museum. Apparently, no accompanying text is known. Apparently a cache of the work was unearthed around the year 2000, since copies of the work suddenly appeared in bookseller catalogs and auctions at that time.

Plate XVIII in the present work is a very fine picture of a Waldrapp, denoted Ibis hemprichii. According to the Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum (Volume XXVI, p. 18), this species was first described by Rüppell as Ibis carunculata in his Neue Wirbelthiere.. (1835-1840). Interestingly, Rüppell, himself, discusses this bird under the name Ibis (Geronticus) comata in his Systematische Übersicht of 1845 (p. 119). Surprisingly, he attributes its discovery to Ehrenberg yet he writes “Keine beschreibung oder Abbildung dieser schönen Ibisart ist bis jetzt, soviel ich weiss, veröffenlicht, welches ich hiermit nachholen will.” Plate 45 of that book is a beautiful depiction of the species by Wolf. It seems to have gone unnoticed that, in addition to the present portrait done by Müller in 1829, Albin depicted this species in the third volume (1738) of his Natural History of Birds as plate XVI, “The Wood Crow of Switzerland” and remarked that the Swiss called it by the name “Waldrapp”.

The plates in this collection are very fine. Plates XI, XII and XIV are designated only “F. Bürde fecit. The others were drawn by Müller and lithographed by Elsasser (?)(XIII and XVI), Pohlke (XV, XVII and XX), and Schmidt (XVIII and XIX).

BM(NH), p. 515; Junk Rara, p. 138; Wood, p. 330; Yale, p. 87; Zimmer, p. 204.

Ehrenberg, Christian Gottfried (1795-1876)

Contains hand-colored lithographic plates “Zoologica I. Aves” XI-XX, 49.8 x 35.0 cm, loosely inserted in gray printed boards with upper cover as transcribed above. The lower cover reads as follows: Index Decades Secundae / XI. CENTROPUS superciliosus adultus. / XII. CENTROPUS superciliosus iuvenis. / XIII. FRINGILLA CARDUELIS rufibarba. / CARDUELIS effrenata. / CARDUELIS frenata. / XIV. VULTUR eulophus. / XV. PTEROCLES guttatus. / XVI. PTEROCLES coronatus. / XVII. IBIS religiosa habessinica. / IBIS religiosa aethiopica. / XVIII. IBIS Hemprichii. / XIX. FALCO schistaceus. / XX. CORVUS GARRULUS stridens.

BM(NH), p. 515; Junk Rara, p. 138; Wood, p. 330; Yale, p. 87; Zimmer, p. 204.

Eisenmann, Eugene (1906)

The Species of / Middle American Birds / A list of all species recorded / from Mexico to Panama, with / suggested English names, outlines of range, / and a distributional bibliography 23.0 x 15.3 cm. Pp. [i-ii]iii-vi1-128(2,blank). Original printed gray wrappers. Transactions of the Linnaean Society of New York, Volume VII, April, 1955.

I, Title; ii, description of Society; iii, contents; 1, introduction; 9, systematic list; 109, bibliography; 121, index to genera and group names. Corrigenda leaf laid in loosely.

This timely work presents Latin and English names as well as (worldwide) ranges for all 1424 species of birds known to have occurred in Central America up to that time. It also contains an important ornithological bibliography for the region as a whole and for each of its component nations.

Eugene Eisenmann, a scholarly and pedantic man, was raised in Panama and became a wealthy lawyer in New York before deciding to work at the American Museum of Natural history. He was an active member of the Linnaean Society of New York and when I was a child, I met him quite frequently on local birding trips.

This work was remarkably prescient because, at the time it was written, Central America, with the exception of Mexico, was virtually terra incognito for the average birder. Subsequently, it has become enormously popular and its jungles are probably the most frequently visited in the world by amateur and professional ornithologists.

Trinity, p. 81.

Eisho Tsuchida

Eisho Hyaku-Cho Gafu (Eisho’s Album of 100 Varieties of Birds) 34 x 22.5 cm.. Four volumes. Volume 1 contains three introductory lettered leaves of preliminaries and/or text, 25 leaves of wood block engravings, mostly partially or completely printed in color, and a final colophon leaf. Volumes 2-4 contain only one introductory leaf with 25 leaves of wood blocks and the colophon. The work is printed on hand-made paper with chain lines. The leaves are bound Japanese-style so that each leaf is actually two leaves joined at their external margin. Thus, although there is printing on each side of each leaf, this printing is present on only one side of the paper. The volumes are string-bound in card wrappers with title and decorative gilt sprinkling on upper cover. Unsodo, Kyoto, 1914. In a cloth, Japanese-style book box, open at the top and bottom and secured with clasps.

This remarkable work is almost the exact opposite of Bairei Kacho Gafu, the beautiful Japanese work I acquired last year and described as emphasizing artistry at the expense of accuracy. It presents close to 100 species in the most extraordinary detail without any background at all. There is complete accuracy with respect to proportions, feather tracts and posture. The work resembles closely that published in the late 1970s from Charles Tunnicliffe’s notebooks and, like the latter, contains many “measured drawings”. Often, many studies are devoted to the same species with different sketches emphasizing posture, feather tracts, tarsal scutella etc. All of the depicted species are found in Japan. In the case of this book, accuracy is not emphasized at the expense of beauty if one considers, as does Wolf, for example, that fidelity to nature is beauty.

Eisho was one of at least four superb Japanese ornithological artists whose work was published in the 19th and early 20th century and reproduced by beautiful wood block printing. Another fine large quarto sized four-volume work was done by Keinen and Tanaka in the early 1890s. Bairei Kacho Gafu (Bairei’s Album of Birds and Flowers) was first issued in the early 1880s and a second identical edition was issued in 1899 by Okura Shoten of Tokyo. This should not be confused with the much inferior octavo-sized Bairei Hyaku-Cho Gafu (Bairei’s album of 100 Varieties of Birds) that was published in three volumes by Okura Magobei and for which there were a supplementary three volumes. Magobei also published a three volume, octavo-sized Seitei Kacho Gafu at around the same time as well as Hokusai Kacho Gaden, a two volume new edition of prints done after the artist Hokusai and originally issued in the early 19th century. I believe that Seitei may also have done a work exclusively on birds in quarto sized format.

Ripley and Scribner list this book as follows: (Tsuchida, Eishô, 1809-1870) Eisho hyakuchô gafu (edited by Takeuchi Seihô, Kyoto, Unsodo, 1913-1925). 4 Volumes. Colored plates. 34 cm. Cover title.

One volume of the work was auctioned by Reiss und Sohn as lot #1978 on 28 October, 2008. They listed it as: Takeuchi Seiho (1864-1942) “Eisho hyakucho gafu” and explained that Takeuchi Seiho was a pupil of Kono Bairei and had used, as the basis of this work, sketches made by the Buddist priest Tsuchida Eisho of the 15th century.

I cannot reconcile the difference between the Yale and Reiss entries. However, Lella and Gianni Morra offered a copy of the work at the 2011 New York International Book Fair and their description agreed with that in Ripley and Scribner. They described the artist as Tsuchida Eisho (1860-1912) and the "editor" as Takeuchi Seiho (1864-1942). According to them. volumes I and II were published by Unsodo in Kyoto in 1913 and volumes III and IV in 1923 and 1925, respectively.

Yale, p. 292 under Tsuchida.

Ellenius, Allan

Bruno Liljefors Oblong. 20.6 x 27.4 cm. Pp. [1-4]5-216. Original publisher's pictorial boards with white lettering on upper cover, black lettering on spine. Uppsala, Bokförlaget Carmina, 1981. Entirely in Swedish.

1, Title; 2, Uppsala 1981; credits: printing of text and graphics by firm of Susan Jones; ISBN 91 7528 014 0; 3, contents; 5, foreword dated September, 1981; 7, introduction; 198, notes on text with citations; 210, location of pictures that are reproduced; 213, index. Contains text figures 1-129 all printed on both sides in half-tone, included in pagination, and comprising 59 colored (42 full-page) and 70 uncolored (16 full-page).

This is an artistic biography of the Swedish painer, Bruno Liljefors (1860-1939), arguably the most talented artist to specialize in wildlife subjects. He was a classical impressionist painter, the only one of that group specializing in pictures of wildlife, and he did only tableaux showing his subjects in natural surroundings. He did not illustrate books and so was never well known amongst ornithologists but his work has always been enormously influential amongst ornithological artists. His paintings were almost all in oils and it is quite impossible to reproduce them adequately. They must be seen to be fully appreciated although the representative examples in this Swedish book give some idea.

The author has published extensively on Swedish art.

This work listed by Harvard, not listed by AMNH, Cornell, Trinity, Yale.

(Elliot, Daniel Giraud [1835-1914])(editor, Thorpe, Adrian)(artist, Wolf, Joseph [1820-1899])

The birds / of / Daniel Giraud Elliot / A selection of pheasants and peacocks / painted by / Joseph Wolf / and taken from the original monograph/ published in New York 1972 56.0 x 43.4. 30 printed leaves including 12 colored plates as described below. Original publisher's blind-paneled green buckram with gilt-ruled and printed red morocco labeling piece on upper cover. Beige endpapers of simulated laid paper. Pictorial dust jacket. London, the Ariel Press, (1979). First and only edition.

First leaf: recto, half-title; verso, facsimile title page from original edition.

Second leaf: recto, title; verso: copyright by Ariel Press, London, and Volair Limited, Kent, Ohio, 1979; limitation statement, this copy #115/1000 for worldwide distribution signed (by whom ?); credits: typography, Konrad Gerhard Lohse; lithography, printing, K. G. Lohse Grossbetrieb, Frankfurt am Main.

Third leaf; recto, dedication; verso, blank.

Fourth leaf recto-fifth leaf recto: introduction containing brief biographies of Elliot and Wolf. Fifth leaf, verso, blank.

Sixth leaf: recto list of plates I-XII; verso, blank.

Leaves seven through 30: 12 leaves of text, each printed on recto with name and number of species, on verso with Elliot's original text and editor's note for facing species; 12 plates printed in multi-color half-tone on recto only with facing text.

There are also single blank leaves at the beginning and end.

A book such as this one whose overriding objective is the reproduction of affordable beautiful colored plates that have been produced previously by a very expensive method depends entirely on the skill of the color printer. There was none better at this during the mid 20^th century than the Lohse firm which also printed books comparable to this one reproducing 19^th century colored plates of Edward Lear, Gould's artists, Barraband and Rafael Montes de Oca. The reproductions in the present work are so good that they are frequently excised and sold as decorative (original) prints.

The original Monograph of the phasianidae or monograph of the pheasants was published in six parts, 1870-1872 and is the most splendid ornithological monograph ever published with an American imprint. This is misleading, however, since the hand-colored lithographed plates were produced in London. The page size of 61 cm was a bit larger than that here but I believe that the figure size is the same for the pictures selected here. In addition to the brief biographies, Thorpe also updates Elliot's original text with contemporary ornithological names in English and Latin and very brief statements about nest, eggs and food of each species.

This work was simultaneously published in London and Kent, Ohio with 500 copies specified for distribution in England and The United States, respectively.

Listed under Thorpe by Cornell, Trinity. Not listed by AMNH, Harvard, Yale.

Elliot, Daniel Giraud (1835-1915).

A Monograph of the Paradiseidae or Birds of Paradise 610 x 480 mm. Contains 99 ll including one preliminary leaf, pp. [i-ix]x-xxviii[xxix-xxxi]xxxii and 82 unpaginated leaves including 45 of text and 37 that comprise one uncolored and 36 colored plates, designated I-XXXVII in the list of plates, that were originally drawn by J. Wolf, lithographed by J. Smit and printed by M. & N. Hanhart, imp. Blue half-morocco with maroon cloth sides, title blocked in gilt on spine and upper cover. TEG. Facsimile edition. New York, Johnson Reprint Corporation & Amsterdam, Theatrum Orbis Terrarum Ltd. Amsterdam, 1977. The preliminary leaf contains the reprint title and date on the recto and the colophon and limitation statement on the verso. This copy, which belonged to Johnson, is #008 of 250 hand-bound copies. There were another 250 unbound copies in portfolio.

i, Title; iii, dedication; v, list of subscribers; vii, preface; ix, introduction; xxix, geographical distribution; xxxi, bibliography; unpaginateed, generic characteristics, list of plates and text.

This is a fine facsimile, bound by Zaehnsdorf of London, but otherwise produced in the Netherlands. The colored plates were reproduced by Nauta & Haagen of Amsterdam. Elliot dedicated the original to Alfred Russell Wallace. The original list of subscribers accounted for only 50 copies but I’m quite certain, based on the number that I have encountered in commerce, that the original print run was considerably higher, perhaps as much as 150. Elliot includes bower birds as birds of paradise.

The original version of this work was privately published in seven parts in 1873. Lesson’s pioneering monograph on the birds of paradise appeared in 1835 and Sharpe’s monograph on the same subject was published 1891-1898.

Elliot, Daniel Giraud (1835-1915)

A / Monograph / of the / Bucerotidae / or / Family of the Hornbills 38.0 x 29.0 cm. [a]²b-i² [$1 signed] plus 73 leaves without signatures; 91 ll. Pp. [I-v]vi-xxxii[xxxiii-xxxvi] plus 146 pp separately paginated for individual species and including four final pages on generic characters. Contemporary half green morocco by Riviere & son, marbled boards and endpapers. Spine with five raised ridges and title in one compartment. London, by the author, (1877-)1882. Printed by Taylor and Francis.

a1r, title; a1v, blank; a2r, dedication to Osbert Salvin; a2v, blank; b1r-b1v, preface; b2r-h2v, introduction comprising literature, key to genera and species, classification and distribution; i1r, list of plates; i1v, blank; i2r, note to binder; i2v, blank; remaining leaves devoted to systematic text with final two leaves on generic characters. Contains 57 hand-colored lithographs by Hanhart imp after Keulemans, unnumbered save in list of plates and three uncolored lithographic plates by Hanhart after Joseph Smit including head of Phodophallus casuarinus designated plate XXXIV in list of plates and two plates of generic characters not called for in the list. Contains seven unnumbered text woodcuts of heads of Ground Hornbills. The Giles Loder copy.

This beautiful and very well known book deals with one of the most exotic looking families of birds and one of my own favorite families. Hornbills are only found in wild places and their method of reproduction, with the sitting female sealed into the nesthole of a tree save for a small outlet by which she is fed by the male, is unique.

This work deals with about 60 species and the text provides synonymy, a description, distribution and whatever sundry specific notes that Elliot could glean from the adventurous collectors who actually observed these birds in the wild. The introductory material is a scholarly assimilation and integration of previous literature.

The book is primarily known for its beautiful illustrations by Keulemans. His depictions are so lifelike that I think he probably saw some of them in the wild during his West Africa-Prince's Island sojourn. It's interesting to compare these pictures with the lifeless images in Levaillant's Histoire naturelle d'une partie…et des Indes (1801). Levaillant's artist clearly knew the birds only from poorly stuffed specimens.

This work is not uncommon. A very few copies were published on large paper (58 cm). Plate XLIV, Anorrhinus austeni, though called for in the list, was never issued due to lack of a specimen.

Wood, p. 331; Yale, p. 88 (two copies including one on large paper); Zimmer, p. 207. Unlisted by Trinity.

Elliot, Daniel Giraud (1835-1915)

North American Shore Birds / A history of the / Snipes, sandpipers, plovers and their allies / inhabiting the beaches and marshes of the / Atlantic and Pacific coasts, the prairies, / and the shores of the inland lakes and / rivers of the NORTH AMERICAN continent; / / their popular and scientific names together with a full / description of their mode of life, nesting, migration and / dispersions, with descriptions of the summer and / winter plumages of adult and young so that/ each species may be readily identified 20.2 x 13.6 cm. Pp. [i-iv]v-xvi17-268(2, ruler in inches); 135 ll. Original publisher's brown cloth with spoon-billed sandpiper decoration on upper cover, brown and black lettering on upper cover and spine. New York, Francis P. Harper, 1895.

i, Half-title; ii, blank; iii, title; iv, copyright; v, preface; ix, contents; xii, blank; xiii, list of illustrations; xv, glossary; 17, introduction; 21, species' descriptions; 217, appendix of keys to families, genera and species; 255, index. Contains folded uncolored lithographic image of bird topography, uncolored frontispiece and uncolored photooffset plates 1-73 after Edwin Sheppard. One plate contains two species and is numbered 36 and 37 so there are a total of 73 leaves of plates including frontispiece, all printed on one side only and not included in pagination. Plate 47 is bound upside-down in this copy. Also contains two unnumbered text illustrations.

Elliot was best known for his beautiful large folio works on pittas, grouse, birds-of-paradise, pheasants and birds of North America. However, he also produced authoritative monographs on North American shore birds, game birds and water fowl. These were produced in trade editions, as this example, and in quarto-sized ("large paper") limited editions of 100 copies.

This work covers 74 species, some of which are European or Asiatic strays to North America, others of which are no longer considered full species. For each, Elliot provides a comprehensive account including descriptions of basic (winter) and alternate (breeding) plumages; distribution and dates of arrival and departure; nests, eggs and breeding behavior; and a general anecdotal section of considerable interest. He does not discuss any decline in the population of Eskimo Curlew which he characterizes as abundant. The section on keys to families, genera and species is unusual and useful.

Trinity, p. 82; Wood, p. 332; Yale, p. 88; Zimmer, p. 208 (all large paper copies with only Trinity also listing this particular edition.

Elphick, Jonathan

Birds / the art of ornithology 28.0 x 26.5 cm. Pp. [1-5]6-335[336. Publisher’s off-white cloth with silver lettering to spine. Bottle green endpapers with white microfilaments. Pictorial dust jacket. New York, Rizzoli, 2005. First U. S. printing.

1, Half-title; 2, first published in U. S. A. 2005 by Rizzoli; first published in London, 2004 by Scriptum Editions in association with Natural History Museum; various copyrights; printed and bound in Italy at Officine Grafiche DeAgostini; colour separation by Brights Arts Graphics, Singapore; ISBN: 0-8478-2706-2; 3, title; 4, colored frontispiece; 5, contents; 6, foreword by Dr. Robert Prys-Jones; 8, preface; 10, beginnings; 26, engravers and explorers: 1650-1800; 120, Audubon to the first lithographers: 1800-1850; 210, golden age of lithography: 1850-1890; 264, an age of transition: 1890-today; 322, list of illustrations; 330, bibliography (about 93 references); 332, index of artists and birds (English and generic names); 336, acknowledgements. Contains 215 unnumbered illustrations in color half-tone, many full page.

This book reproduces a large number of original paintings from the collection of the British Museum of Natural History, many of which have not been previously published. The earliest is a striking rooster from the Museum’s album, “Raccolta di Uccelli”, attributed to Giovanni da Udine (1487-1584), a student of Raphael’s. Also of special interest is a group of paintings revealing the considerable artistic talent of the ornithologist William MacGillivary, whose mid 19th century treatise on British birds has been widely admired for its text.

The unusual pictures in the book are woven into the fabric of an orthodox history of ornithological art from a distinctly Anglo-Saxon perspective.

Listed (English edition) by Trinity, not yet (2005) by AMNH, Cornell, Harvard, Yale.

Emanuel, Victor (with Walsh, S. Kirk)

One more warbler A life with birds 22.8 x 15.4 cm. Pp. [i-vii]viii-xi[xii-xiv][1]2-273(1). Original publisher’s black cloth with white lettering on spine. Pictorial colored dust jacket showing author with telescope. Olive green endpapers. Austin, University of Texas Press, 2017. Signed inscription by Emanuel to Richard Soffer on verso of half-title and additional author signature on title page.

i, Half-title; ii.,“ Mildred Wyatt-Wold series in ornithology”; title; iv, copyright, 2017; ISBN 978-1-4773-1238-4; first edition; v, dedication; vi, quotations; vii, contents; ix, prologue; xiii, repeat half-title. 1, text; 251, epilogue; 253, acknowledgments; 255, suggested readings; 257, index. Contains four uncolored, glossy leaves with half-tone photographs and four colored glossy leaves with color half-tone photographic illustrations. Some of the uncolored leaves have more than one image whereas the colored leaves each depict only one bird. All glossy leaves are unnumbered, not included in pagination, and printed on both sides.

Victor Emanuel founded Victor Emanuel Nature Tours (VENT), one of the early tour companies specializing in exotic birds. Here he describes various anecdotes that have especially caught his attention.

Engelmann, Wilhelm (1808-1878)

Bibliotheca / Historico-Naturalis. / Verzeichnss der Bücher / über / Naturgeschichte / welche in / Deutschland, Scandinavien, Holland, England, / Frankreich, Italien, / und Spanien / in den Jahren 1700-1846 erschienen sind // Erster Band. / Bücherkunde. Hülfsmittel. Allgemeine Schriften. / Vergleichende Anatomie und Physiologie. / Zoologie. Palaeontologie. 22,8 x 14.1 πp⁵1-98⁴99²(-99₂);[$1, 2 signed; 81 misprinted 18]; 397 ll. Pp. [1-v]vi-viii[ix-x]. Contemporary quarter blue morocco, blue marbled boards. Spine with four raised ridges, gilt lettering in second compartment, gilt designs in other four. Brown marbled endpapers. Leipzig, Verlag Wilhelm Engelmann, 1846.

π1r, blank; π1v, Latin title page; π2r, German title page as above; π2v, blank; π3r-π4v, foreword; π5r, contents; π5v, blank; 1, books about books; 4, museums and collections; 14, taxidermy; 19, microscopy; 23, history of natural sciences; 36, publications of learned societies; 71, assorted works on natural history; 203, comparative anatomy and physiology; 289, assorted publications on zoology; 346, works on specific classes of animals; 583, prehistoric animals; 627, additions; 647, alphabetical index of names; 747, subject index.

This present volume was reprinted in 1976. The work was continued through 1860 in a supplementary volume published by Carus and Engelmann in 1861 and then through 1880 in a work by O. Taschenberg published in 1886. Taschenberg published another continuation in 1923. Engelmann, a prolific bibliographer, was a bookseller and publisher and this is the most useful and important bibliography on zoology and ornithology extant for works published prior to 1846. The indexes for authors and subjects are flawless and the equal of any generated by the finest computer. Considerable, albeit variable information is given about each book including the number of parts, the plate counts and, most interestingly, the contemporary prices in marks pounds, francs or florins, such prices being unavailable in any other bibliography and accessible only in rare old bookseller catalogs. Complete collations, however, are not present. There was to be a second volume that covered Botany and Minerology but was never published. Although there is a Latin title page in addition to the German one copied above the book is written in German only.

Wood, p. 333. Also present at AMNH, Cornell, Harvard, Trinity, Yale.

Ennion, Eric (Arnold Robert[1900-1981]) (introduction and commentary by John Busby)

The / living birds of / Eric Ennion 27.9 x 19.6 cm. Pp. (1-4)5-128; Publisher's brown cloth with gilt lettering to flat spine. Gray endpapers. Pictorial dust jacket with price of £9.95 printed on upper flap. London, Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1982.

1, Half-title; 2, colored frontispiece; 3, title; 4, copyright 1982; ISBN 0-575-03157-3; designed by Rupert Kirby; printed in Italy by New Interlitho, Milan; 5, content; 7, introduction; 10, water birds; 30, terns and gulls; 38, waders; 56, woodland birds; 77, open country and garden birds; 99, game birds; 102, birds of prey; 102, drawing and painting birds; 125, chronology; 126, bibliography of books written and illustrated (11) or illustrated (9) by Ennion; 128, acknowledgements. Contains: about 139 unnumbered, colored illustrations dispersed throughout, of which perhaps 31 are full-page, or reduced reproductions of a full notebook page; 84 unnumbered, uncolored illustrations of which perhaps two are double-page and 25 are full-page or reduced reproductions of a full-page of notebook. Save for a very few line illustrations, almost all, both uncolored and colored, are printed in half-tone.

Eric Ennion was a physician who became a dedicated field ornithologist and artist. He was very influential in the Society of Wildlife Artists and better known amongst artists than by the general public. His pictures are extremely cerebral and are regarded with much esteem by many ornithological artists.

Listed by AMNH, Cornell, Trinity, Yale. Not listed by Harvard.

Erlanger, Carlo Freiherr von (1872-1904)

Forschungsreise / durch / Süd-Schoa Galla und die / Somali-Länder / Beitrage / zur / Vogelfauna Nordostafrikas/ mit besonderer / Berücksichtigung / der Zoogeographie (general title) 22.2 x 14.8 cm. Volume I. Contains 194 pages, a large folding map and 19 colored plates as described below. Gilt-ruled half brown calf with turquoise cloth sides. Spine with four gilt-ruled, slightly raised ridges, red and gilt morocco labeling pieces in second and fourth compartments. Decoratively patterned endpapers. Bookplate of Ch. Alluaud. TEG. (Berlin, 1902-1904).

This is the first volume of a two-volume, privately bound set of collected offprints that was probably assembled and distributed by Erlanger's family. This particular copy contains an obituary of Erlanger from The Ibis, Jan., 1905 mounted on the blank recto of the first leaf. It also contains a black paneled card of mourning mounted between the first and second leaf. This card is engraved "Freifrau von Erlanger / geb. Freün von Bernus / Nieder-Inglelheim." There is a manuscript note: "En vous priant de bien vouloir accepter les derniers ouvrages de mon pauvre fils." The volume contains four articles, the first of which begins on page [11], presumably to follow consecutively the initial five leaves which are thus [1-10]. The contents are as follows: 1, blank with obituary affixed; 1, photographic portrait of a dashing Erlanger; 3, general title as above; 4, blank; 5, volume designation: I. Band; 6, blank; 7, contents of the first volume; 8, blank; 9, title for the first two, consecutively paginated articles: Bericht / über meine / Expedition in Nordost-Afrika / in den Jahren 1899-1901 / von / Carlo Freiherr von Erlanger / Geographische Ergebnisse / der Expedition Carlo Frhr. von Erlanger / von / P. Sprigade. Sonderabdruck aus der Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Berlin, Jahrgang, 1904, No. 2; 10, blank; 11-50, Bericht über meine Expedition in Nordost-Afrika inden Jahren 1899-1901 Contains 14 unnumbered, uncolored text photographs (one full-page) by the author. 51-65[66], Geographische Ergebnisse der Expedition…; (2, recto, title: Zoogeographie / und Ornithologie von Abessinien, / den Galla-un Somali-Ländern / Vortrag / / gehaltenen der Wissenschaftlichen Sitzun / am 8 März, 1902 / von / Carlo Freiherr von Erlanger. Sonderabdruck aus Bericht der Senkenbergischen Naturforschenden Gesellschaft in Frankfurt am Mein, 1902; verso, blank);1-15(1). Contains large (15 panels) folded map printed in colors; (2, recto, title: Beiträge / zur / Vogelfauna Nordostafrikas / mit besonderer Berücksichtugung / der Zoogeographie / von / Carlo Freiherr von Erlanger I. Raptatores Sonderabdruck aus: Journal für Ornithologie, April-Heft, 1904; verso, blank; [137]138-244, Systematic text. Contains chromolithographic plates I-XIX (two folding of four and six full-panel images respectively)after Otto Kleinschmidt by Eugen Köhler (17) and W. Greve (2).

Erlanger was a very highly regarded German ornithologist with great first-hand knowledge of Northeast Africa and Tunisia who died prematurely in an automobile crash. He was well known in English circles, having spent some time at Cambridge. He and Alexander Koenig were the two specialists in the special forms of many species that are found in this area and both were particularly interested in birds of prey. After Erlanger's death, his family apparently assembled a collection of some of his off prints and distributed them, with some sort of personal note, to close friend and relatives. This copy has a poignant note in French from his Baroness mother. The off prints which have been gathered here come from very rare publications and would be quite difficult to assemble today. I've not seen the second volume of the set. Trinity (p. 83) lists a complete set but gives no details. A complete set was auctioned for £2.400 by Sotheby's London as lot 246 on 5/28/2003. They described that volume II contained five folding colored maps in a pocket at its end and they gave a figure of 36 chromolithographic plates by Kleinschmidt suggesting that the second volume contains an additional 17.

This assembled volume is extremely rare. The only copy I could locate is that at Trinity. It is not listed by AMNH, Berkeley, BM(NH), Cornell, Harvard, LOC, Oxford, Smithsonian, Wood, Yale and Zimmer.

Erlanger, Carlo, Freiherr von (1872-1904)

Beiträge zur Avivfauna Tunesiens (Contributions to Tunisian Ornithology). 23.4 x 15.2 cm. Two volumes designated "Text" and "Tafeln" (Plates) respectively. Quarter sheep and marbled boards, spines with five raised ridges and two of the six compartments with gilt lettering. Marbled endpapers.

A collection of four articles extracted from the Journal für Ornithologie as follows: 1898, pp. 377-497 including general commentary and species 1-32, plates IV-XIII(IV, V uncolored, remainder colored, colored folding (eight panel) map of Tunisia and Algeria; 1899, 213-374 covering species 33-108, and 449-532 covering species 109-153 and including plates II-XVII, all colored, IX (12 panels), XVII, (two panels) folded; 1900, 1-105 including species 154-233, distribution tables and additions and printing errors. (Leipzig, L. A. Kittler)

Erlanger was a cosmopolitan German ornithologist who died prematurely in an automobile accident. He had spent a year at Cambridge whence he was elected to the BOU. He led important expeditions to Tunisia and to Somaliland and his collections resulted in highly regarded publications in the prestigious Journal für Ornithologie. His obituary in The Ibis of January 1905 was extraordinarily laudatory. Concerning his Contributions to Tunisian Ornithology "…the largest and best collection of birds ever made in that country…..This work was so important that it made its author at once famous throughout and beyond the ornithological world".

His specialty was geographical variation in species. His Tunisian collection was mostly Saharan. In these articles, for each species he provides the Latin and Arabic names, cites every reference concerning the species in Tunisia, and then writes a general essay whose depth depends on his own experience with that particular species. As an example, his text on the Crested Lark was praised by The Ibis obituary writer "..will ever rank among the best articles written on the geographical forms of a group". In these articles on Tunisian ornithology, he often compares distribution and forms with those described for Algeria by Koenig.

The excellent plates are mostly (21) after Otto Kleinschmidt with the remainder after E. de Maes. They are uncolored and colored collotypes (Lichtdruck) by Kühl & Co., Frankfurt a. M., by Bonner Anst. and by J. B. Obernetter, München and chromolithographs by Köster & Schell, Marburg a. L, by Werner & Winter, Frankfurt, and by Eugen Köhler, Gera-Untermhaus. The remarkable twelve-panel plate depicts variations of the Crested Lark.

This remarkable Sammelband was privately assembled. The series of articles it contains was never published as a single entity.

Etchécopar, R.(obert) D.(aniel), and François Hüe (d. 1972) (illustrated by Paul Barruel [1901-1982] and François Berille). Les oiseaux de la Chine. Two volumes as described below.

Les oiseaux / de / Chine / de Mongolie et de Corée / non passereaux 24.2 x 16.2. Pp. [1-7]8-585[586-589(1). Publisher's ochre cloth, gilt lettering on spine. Endpaper maps A and B. Pictorial dust jacket. Papeete, Tahiti, les éditions du pacifique (sic, not capitalized), (1978). Manuscript letter from author laid in loosely.

1-2, blank; 3, half-title; 4, blank; 5, title; 6, copyright 1978; ISBN 2-85700-094-4; 7, préface by Charles Vaurie; 9, introduction; 15, systematic text, Gavia adamsii-Blythipicus pyrrhotis; 565, glossaire (geographical names); 569, index of scientific names; 575, index of French names; 580, index of English names; 596, contents, lsit of plates; 587-588, blank; 589, credits: printed by l'Imprimerie Aubin à Ligugé; bound by S. I. R. C. à Marigny-le-Châtel; printing completed 2 October, 1978. Contains: colored plates 1-22, so enumerated in list and facing letter-press, displaying about 240 species, printed in half-tone on both sides of 11 leaves and not included in text; uncolored plates A-B displaying 21 species, printed in half-tone on both sides of one leaf and not included in pagination; unnumbered test line sketches of about 200 species; about 260 line text distribution maps.

Etchécopar, R.(obert) D., and François Hue (d. 1972) (illustrated by Patrick Suiro and C. G. Armani).

Les oiseaux / de/ Chine / de Mongolie et de Corée / passereaux 24.1 x 16.0 cm. Pp. [1-7]8-704[705-707](1). Publisher's ochre cloth with gilt lettering to spine. Endpaper maps A and B. Pictorial dust jacket. Paris, Societe (sic) Nouvelle des Éditions Boubée, 1983. Promotional brochure and typed errata slip laid in loosely.

1-2, Blank; 3, half-title; 4, ISBN 2-85004-037-1; 7, avant-propos; 10, blank; 11, systematic accounts, Serilophus lunatus-Corvus corax; 669, bibliographie sommaire (about 165 entries); 677, index of French names; 683, index of English names; 689, index of scientific names; 705, contents, list of plates; 706, blank; 707, credits: printed by l'Imprimerie I. G. O. au Poiré-sur-Vie; bound by S. I. R. C. à Marigny-le-Châtel; printing completed 22 May, 1983. Contains: colored plates 23-44, so enumerated in list and facing letter-press, displaying about 418 species, printed in half-tone on both sides of 11 leaves not included in pagination; uncolored plates C-D displaying 32 species, printed in half-tone on both sides of one leaf and not included in pagination; unnumbered text line sketches of about 131 species; about 333 line text distribution maps.

The authors considered the Chinese avifauna basically an extension on those of North Africa and the near and middle east on which they had already published two major treatises. It was an unfortunate time to be writing about the birds of China because it was just before the country became open to ornithological exploration and tourism by foreigners. When Etchécopar who had no actual ornithological experience in China, wrote these two volumes in the mid seventies, most knowledge of the Chinese avifauna was still based on late 19^th century works. The situation changed rapidly and the present work became immediately outdated.

The effort was a heroic one. For each species, Etchécopar tried to provide: a brief description; habits; nesting; distribution; subspecies and world-wide distribution. Remarkably, most of the species were illustrated by colored figures and line drawings.

Etchécopar had difficulty getting the first volume published because his long-term publisher, Boubée, was temporarily inactive. The two volumes were never denoted volumes I and II although that was certainly the intention and the plates are numbered consecutively.

Listed by Harvard, Trinity, Yale. Cornell lists only the second volume. Not listed by AMNH.

Etchécopar, R.(obert)D.(aniel), and François Hüe (illustrated by Paul Barruel [1901-1982]; translated by P. A. D. Hollom)

The birds / of / North Africa / from the Canary Islands to the Red Sea 23.5 x 16.1 cm. π¹⁰B-2P⁸2Q¹⁰[$1 signed]; 316 ll. Pp. [i-iv]v-xx[1]2-612. Publisher's brown cloth with gilt lettering on spine. Pictorial dust jacket. Edinburgh and London, Oliver & Boyd, 1967. Signed manuscript letter from Etchécopar laid in loosely.

i, Half-title; ii, blank; iii, title; iv, originally published by Éditions N. Boubée & Cie, Paris (1964) as Les oiseaux du Nord de l'Afrique; first English edition 1967; printer designation: R. & R. Clark, Ltd., Edinburgh; v, preface to the French edition by J. Berlioz; vii, translator's note; viii, contents; colour and half-tone plates; xi, uncolored sketch map; xii, uncolored sketch map; xiii, introduction; 1-601(1), systematic accounts, Struthio camelus-Passer simplex, comprising about 500 species; 603, index of English names; 608, index of scientific names. Contains: uncolored plates A-C displaying 39 species; colored plates I-XXIV displaying 231 species, all plates enumerated on facing letter press and in list, printed in half-tone on one side only and not included in pagination; unnumbered text line sketches of about 235 species; two sketch maps and about 280 unnumbered text distribution maps.

This book is a slightly revised translation of the authors' first work in a series intended to describe the avifauna of the desert belt extending from North Africa through the Gobi desert. It was followed in 1970 by Les oiseaux du Proche et de Moyen Orient and then in 1978 and 1983 by Les oiseaux de Chine. This volume is the only one of the series that was translated into English.

The present work provides the following information, where appropriate, for the various species: length measurement; description; behavior; nesting; status, distribution and subspecies. Virtually every species is well illustrated by Paul Barruel, almost half in color.

The work is listed by AMNH, Cornell, Harvard, Trinity and Yale.

Evans, Evan M.

The Important / Ornithological Library / Formed by the Late / Dr. Evan Morton Evans 23.5 x 15.5 cm. Pp. (6)1-105[106]. Stilted in original gray printed wrappers. New York, Parke-Bernet Galleries, Sale #1631, December 6, 7, 1955. Contains 13 (11 full-page) uncolored illustrations. A list of the prices realized is loosely laid in.

This was the first important ornithological library to be auctioned in the United States after World War II. In the 42 years that have elapsed since this auction, I estimate that the prices for significant works have increased an average of 30-40 fold. The most interesting of the books is one whose title page is illustrated: Giraud’s A Description / of / Sixteen New Species / of / North American Birds / / / / / / / Collected in Texas, 1838. This sold for $575.

Most, but not all of the 540 lots were ornithological books. The most significant exceptions were nine paintings by Carl Rungius. The most valuable of these, a 56 x 44 inch portrait of a bull moose, was said to be the artist’s first painting of an American big game animal. It sold for $1,300. This is to be compared with $1,350 for Audebert’s Oiseaux D’Orés ...(gold printed captions, 200 copies), $2,500 for a Catesby first edition and $2,500 for a first Audubon octavo in original wrappers.

Not all of Evans’s bird books were included in this auction. Some were retained by his son, Daniel Webster Evans. I bought two of these, the tenth edition of Linnaeus and the extremely rare royal octavo Wilson & Bonaparte colored by Thomas Brown, at a Christie’s New York auction on October 29, 1993. Other works from the Evans collection that had not been auctioned in 1955 were also in the sale.

This is an important bibliographic item that is very hard to find.

Evenhuis, Neal L. (editor)

Barefoot /on lava //The journals and correspondence / of naturalist R. C. L. Perkins / in Hawai’I, 1892-1901 25.5 x 17.3 cm. Pp. [1-6]7-412. Original publisher’s blue-green cloth with gilt insect on upper cover, gilt lettering to spine. Endpaper maps. Color pictorial dust jacket. Honolulu, Bishop Museum Press, 2007.

1, Half-title; 2, blank; 3, title; 4, Bishop Museum Bulletin in Zoology 7; ISBN 10: 1-58178-061-3; printed in China by Everbest; 5, dedication; 6, photograph of Perkins; 7, table of contents; 9, foreword; 11, acknowledgments; 13, prologue; 15, explanation of format; 17, part one-introduction; 19, historical summary; 27, biography of R. C. L. Perkins; 49, background to Fauna Hawaiiensis collecting; 53, history of Perkins’s journals; 61, part two-first expedition (1892-1894); 257, part three-second expedition (1895-1897; 365, part four-third expedition; 381, glossary; 397, literature cited (four references); 397, list of biographical information on R. C. L. Perkins (14 references); appendix, archival resources; 403, index of people, insects, birds etc. Contains about 43 uncolored text illustrations, most photographs of scientists.

Robert Cyril Layton Perkins (1866-1955) was one of the great chroniclers of Hawaiian insects and birds who collected at about the same time as Scott B. Wilson and Henry Palmer. His chapter on the birds of the islands published in David Sharp’s “Fauna Hawaiiensis” is one of the most important contributions to Hawaiian ornithology.

OCLC locates 58 copies.

Everett, Michael

The / birds of paradise // illustrated with plates by John Gould, W. Hart and J. G. Keulemans and original paintings by Peter Hayman 31.7 x 22.5 cm. Pp. [1-3]4-144. Publisher's ochre cloth with gilt lettering to spine. Yellow endpapers. Pictorial dust jacket with original price of $22. 50 printed on upper flap. New York, G. P. Putnam's Sons, (1978).

1, Half-title; 2, blank; 3, title; 4, contents; 5, contents; a Quarto book; copyright 1978; ISBN 399-12251-6; credits: designed by Quarto Publishing Limited, London; colour plates originated by Starf Photolito SRL, Rome and Welbeck Litho Plates Ltd, Bromley Kent; printed in Hong Kong by Leefung-Asco Printers Ltd.; 6, frontispiece uncolored photograph of portrait of Gould; 7, introduction; 8, the two families; 10, discovery and exploration; 18, origins and evolution; 20, birds of paradise, general; 22, bowerbirds, general; 24, species accounts and plates, Loria loriae-Chlamydera cerviniventris, comprising 60 species; 143, index including Latin and English names; 144, bibliography (five entries). Preliminaries printed in black double-ruled peach frames, text prined in black double-ruled white frames. Contains 59 (57 colored) unnumbered plates of birds printed in half-tone with facing text printed on obverse of antecedent plate, all included in pagination. Also contains nine uncolored half-tone photographs, three full-page (including frontispiece) in preliminary sections and colored distribution maps for all species.

Despite the title, this popular style monograph includes the bowerbirds as well as birds of paradise. Of the 59 plates, 49 were reproduced from Sharpe's Monograph of the Paradiseidae…and Ptilonorhynchidae (1891-1898), and ten were painted specifically for this book by Peter Hayman. The last two of Hayman's pictures are inexplicably uncolored, perhaps due to some sort of production error. Although not particularly well printed, the plates are attractive and provide a hint of the splendor of Sharpe's original publication. The present work appeared around the same time as Forshaw and Cooper's magnificent monograph on the same subject and suffers mightily by comparison. The text is brief and the tiny bibliography appearing after the index looks like an afterthought ordered by the editor.

Listed by AMNH, Cornell, Yale. Not listed by Harvard, Trinity.

Eyton, T(homas) C(ampbell) (1809-1880).

A history / of the / rarer British Birds with A / catalogue / of / British birds 25.7 x 15.8 cm. [A]⁴B-N⁴O⁴(-O4)[a]⁴b-i⁴k²[$1 signed]; 93 ll. Pp. [i-iii]iv-vu[vii](1)[1]2-101(1)[i₂-iii₂]iv₂-vi₂[vii₂](1)[1₂]2₂-67₂(1). Original publisher's pebbled green cloth with contemporary printed paper labeling piece on spine. London, Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman; and Houlston and Son, 1836. Manuscript signature J. Houlston (? Publisher) dated 1836 on upper paste-down. Catalog (14 pp.) of Longman et al dated March 1836 bound between upper paste-down and endpaper.

i, Title; ii, blank; iii, preface; v, contents listing 40 species and including the catalogue; vii, errors and corrections; 1-98, accounts of 40 species interspersed with small essays on "swimming birds", gulls and ducks; 99, notes on occurrence of some other rare birds; i₂, title page A / catalogue / of / British birds; ii₂, blank; iii₂, preface; v₂, list of authors; vii₂, erratum; 1₂, catalogue of British birds; 63₂, extinct species; 64₂, introduced species; 66₂, doubtful species. Contains 38 uncolored, unnumbered wood-engraved bird portraits (Iceland and Brown-headed Gulls not illustrated) engraved by "Mr. Mark" probably after Eyton, himself, title vignette and 43 other text engravings, mostly tail-pieces, some of tracheae. Illustrations are all part of the first work.

This work was intended to supplement that of Bewick and resembles it as well as the later one by Yarrell in format and appearance. It provides records and descriptions of 40 rare birds, 38 of which are pictured. The book is described extensively (pp. 59-69) in Christine Jackson's Wood Engravings of Birds (1978). She tells us that it was first issued without a picture of the Rock Grouse but that a replacement leaf figured that species. This copy contains the replacement leaf. Only one illustration, and that a vignette, is signed by Eyton.

The two works that are described for this volume are often considered to be separate but that is not the case since the contents page of the first work includes the second and its preliminaries. It seems not generally recognized that this book was issued in two formats, my copy being the "large paper", so mentioned only by Mullens & Swann (p. 203). Most collections seem to contain the regular paper issue, 22 instead of 25.7 cm.

Wood, p. 336; Zimmer, p. 213. Also listed by AMNH, Cornell, Harvard, Trinity, Yale, all 22 cm copies.

The Richard L. Soffer Ornithology Collection by Richard L. Soffer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.amherst.edu.

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