A monograph of the lories, or brush tongued parrots, composing the family loriidae.
London: R.H. Porter, 1896. Large 4to. liii, [i], 193 pp. FIRST EDITION. With 61 hand-colored lithographed plates, 4 colored maps, and numerous text illustrations. Later full cloth, title in gilt to front cover and spine. A superb copy but for a tear on page 63 neatly repaired with tape. From the Library of James M. Dolan Jr., former head curator and director of collections at the Zoological Society of San Diego. Item #16261
First edition of this remarkable monograph, with beautiful hand-colored plates by J.G. Keulemans, and special maps illustrating the distribution of the family Loriidae and its component genera. The Lories are a family of small parrots remarkable for their brilliant and gay coloration. It is not only the appearance of these birds which make them attractive; some of them, as those of the genus Chalcopsittacus, will spontaneously approach human dwellings. Of special interest are sixteen of the seventy-five species here depicted and described for the first time
Mivart (1827-1900), in terms of mastery of anatomical detail, “had few rivals, and perhaps no superior, among his contemporaries” (DNB), and Keulemans (1842-1912) was quite possibly the greatest illustrator of birds towards the end of the nineteenth century.
Price: $20,000.00