William Swainson | A Selection of the Birds of Brazil and Mexico, 1841

William Swainson

A Selection of the Birds of Brazil and Mexico. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1841

8vo (230 x 143 mm.), 78 hand-coloured lithographed plates, contemporary purple morocco gilt, spine with raised bands in six compartments, inner dentelles, gilt edges, light scattered spotting, upper hinge cracked, extremities lightlyrubbed, a good copy

"A rare book, much appreciated for the beauty of its plates" (Borba de Moraes) and one of the rarest books on South American ornithology. A list of the neotropical species in Latin and English is provided but no text appears to have been published with the original edition.

LITERATURE:

Borba de Moraes, p. 844; Fine Bird Books, p. 110; McGill/Wood, p. 589