STRICKLAND, [HUGH EDWIN], AND ALEXANDER GORDON MELVILLE. 'THE DODO AND ITS KINDRED; OR THE HISTORY, AFFINITIES, AND OSTEOLOGY OF THE DODO, SOLITAIRE, AND OTHER EXTINCT BIRDS OF THE ISLANDS MAURITIUS, RODRIGUEZ, AND BOURBON'. LONDON: REEVE, BENHAM, AND REEVE, 1848

4to (11 15/16 x 9 1/2 in.; 303 x 242mm). Half-title, woodcut title-vignette, list of subscribers, 12 lithographic plates by Dinkel and West, including frontispiece, and 5 anastatically-printed plates, one hand-colored and one folding, all plates backed on linen, woodcut in-text illustrations; frontispiece with some repair, foxing primarily affecting uncolored plates, one or two plates slightly dampstained, lacking errata slip and advertisements at end. Later half speckled calf over marbled paper covered boards, spine with raised bands in six compartments, second with gilt-lettered red morocco label, others with repeat overall decoration in gilt, all edges speckled; corners bumped, some rubbing to corners and boards.

Anker 486; 'Fine Bird Books', 109; Nissen IVB 900; Wood, 585; Zimmer, 606

4to (11 15/16 x 9 1/2 in.; 303 x 242mm). Half-title, woodcut title-vignette, list of subscribers, 12 lithographic plates by Dinkel and West, including frontispiece, and 5 anastatically-printed plates, one hand-colored and one folding, all plates backed on linen, woodcut in-text illustrations; frontispiece with some repair, foxing primarily affecting uncolored plates, one or two plates slightly dampstained, lacking errata slip and advertisements at end. Later half speckled calf over marbled paper covered boards, spine with raised bands in six compartments, second with gilt-lettered red morocco label, others with repeat overall decoration in gilt, all edges speckled; corners bumped, some rubbing to corners and boards.
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First edition. A prominent Victorian geologist, Hugh Strickland was one of the founders of the Ray Society, and a friend of Charles Darwin. Alexander Gordon Melville was an Irish comparative anatomist, who had moved to Oxford around 1846 when he was appointed assistant to Henry Wentworth Acland. It was in Oxford that Strickland and Melville met, and began work on their joint project pertaining to the dodo. Ultimately, the book's publication sparked a search for fossil evidence of the dodo on Mauritius, the aim of which was to supplement the meagre specimens available to nineteenth-century scientists.