The voyage of the H.M.S. Challenger, Zoology, Vol. II Part VIII - report on birds.
London: Printed by the Society, 1881. 4to. viii, 166 pp. FIRST SEPARATE PRINTING. With 30 hand-colored lithographed plates by J. Smit. Half-morocco and marbled boards, recent endpapers; with the exception of very minor discoloration to the half-title, an absolutely exquisite copy with bright and clean plates. Item #16340
First separate printing. The complete ornithological report, with excellent illustrations, on the nearly 900 specimens collected by the expedition. “The collection [of birds] was formed under the superintendence of Mr. John Murray, one of the naturalists of the Expedition, and the skins were chiefly prepared by Mr. Frederick Pearcey, who accompanied the vessel as taxidermist” (introduction). The H.M.S. Challenger sailed over 70,000 miles during her extended voyage of exploration.
Sclater (1829-1913), a well-known and highly productive (over 1400 publications) ornithologist by trade, is also remembered for his 1858 paper setting out the faunal regions classification of zoogeography later adopted by Alfred Russel Wallace. He was the founder and for many years the editor of Ibis, secretary of the Zoological Society of London, a member of more than forty professional societies at home and abroad, and a council member of the Royal Society of London.
Price: $5,500.00