Seebohm, Henry | A classic monograph of the shore birds of the world

Seebohm, Henry

The Geographical Distribution of the family Charadriidae, or the Plovers, Sandpipers, Snipes, and their Allies. London & Manchester: printed by Taylor & Francis for Henry Sotheran & Co., [1887-1888]

Large 4to (321 x 254 mm). 21 hand-coloured lithographic plates by and after John Gerrard Keulemans, wood-engraved title vignette and numerous illustrations by or after J.G. Millais, G.E. Lodge, Charles Whymper and others. Original green morocco-grained cloth, upper cover paneled in black with lettering in gilt, lower cover paneled in blind, spine gilt-lettered.

First edition, first issue, of this classic monograph of the shore birds of the world: the plovers, sandpipers, and snipe

The plates include birds from Africa, South America, New Zealand, and Madagascar, and are the work of John Gerrard Keulemans, "the major bird book illustrator for 30 years at the end of the 19th century" (Jackson, Dictionary of Bird Artists of the World 314). As Seebohm explains in the preface, the main impetus for the work came from the collection and initial research of James Edmund Harting, with subsequent information coming from the collections of Swinhoe and Shelley, as well as the author's own researches. He also made use of the national collections in the British Museum, Salvin and Godman's collection of South American birds, and the Smithsonian's collection of birds from the Pacific Islands. Zimmer notes that "The prefatory matter...is devoted to general remarks on classification, evolution, differentiation of species, glacial epochs, migration, zoological regions, and subspecific forms. The main body of the text discusses the various species of shore birds in order, with considerable detail..." He sums up the work as "a valuable repository of information on the subject" with "excellent" hand-colored plates.

The two issues of this work are most readily determined by the frontispieces: the Chilean dotterel features in the second issue, replacing the slender-billed dotterel found in the first issue (as here). The first issue is said to have superior coloring.

REFERENCE

Anker 455; Fine Birds Books 141; T. Keulemans & J. Coldewey, Feathers to brush... John Gerrard Keulemans 65; Nissen IVB 850; Wood 561; Zimmer 568

PROVENANCE

J. H. Barnard (early signature) — Thomas Perry (bookplate)