DANIEL GIRAUD ELLIOT. A MONOGRAPH OF THE PITTIDÆ, OR FAMILY OF ANT THRUSHES. NEW YORK: [1861–] 1863

Folio (22 x 13 3/8 in.; 558 x 340 mm; mounted on guards). 31 fine handcolored lithographed plates after Elliot, P. Oudart, Maubert, and Mensel, by Bowen & Co. and C. F. Tholey, dedication leaf, list of subscribers, list of plates; some light offsetting. Half red morocco gilt; some wear at extremities.

Fine Bird Books 74; Nissen IVB 292. This edition not in Ayer/Zimmer, Copenhagen/Anker, or McGill/Wood

Condition as described in catalogue entry.
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First edition of Elliot's first ornithological work with his own illustrations, and the scarcest of his major monographs. "Elliot was not his own painter, except among the Pittas. Early in his career, in 1862, he had brought out his book on the Pittidæ, or Ant-Thrushes with plates of a delightful, rather primitive character, after his own drawings" (Fine Bird Books). Elliot's chosen illustrator, Oudart, died after completing but three plates, and rather than risk a hurried instruction of another artist, Elliot felt "compelled to turn draughtsman myself" (Preface) and executed all of the drawings, save one each by Maubert and Mensel.