VIEILLOT, LOUIS JEAN PIERRE | Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux de l'Amérique Septentrionale, Contenant un Grand Nombre d'Espèces Decrites ou Figurées pour la Première Fois. Paris: chez Desray, 1807-[1808]

VIEILLOT, LOUIS JEAN PIERRE

Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux de l'Amérique Septentrionale, Contenant un Grand Nombre d'Espèces Decrites ou Figurées pour la Première Fois. Paris: chez Desray, 1807-[1808]

2 vols., folio (21 5/8 x 13 1/2 in.; 549 x 343 mm). 131 etched plates after J.G. Pretre by L. Bouquet, printed in colors by Langlois and finished by hand, extra-illustrated with a double-page engraved map of L'Amerique Septentrionale; plate number 42 from an Atlas Universel, as usual. Contemporary red morocco, covers with border of gilt fillets and a dog-tooth roll, spines in six compartments with double-raised bands, the bands highlighted with gilt tooling and the space between each pair of bands with a narrow onlay of black morocco, lettered in gilt on labels in the second and third compartments, gilt turn-ins, marbled endpapers; minor soiling, one or two instance of staining.

First edition of this classic of American ornithology

The present work contains descriptions of many North American birds, some of which predate those of Alexander Wilson. Vieillot, along with Wilson, was a pioneer in a new kind of ornithology in which birds were no longer assessed as specimens and skins but studied as living organisms within their environment. "Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot was one of the more discerning ornithologists who gave particular study to female, immature and seasonal plumages" (Allen). 

REFERENCE:

Allen 549-552; Anker 515; Nissen, IVB 957