Colour plates. First book edition of this attractive volume, written and illustrated by one of the foremost science popularisers of the Victorian era and originally published in parts between 1858 and 1860.

Philip Henry Gosse (1810-1888) first came to prominence with scientific works on the ecology of Canada and Jamaica. A series of successful books for the general public followed and in 1853 he published A Naturalist's Rambles on the Devonshire Coast, 'which brought before the public the science of marine biology, and was partly responsible for the sea-shore craze of the mid-Victorian period... Much of Gosse's success was due to the fact that he was essentially a field naturalist who was able to impart to his readers something of the thrill of studying living animals at first hand... In addition to this he was a skilled draughtsman who was able to illustrate his books himself. Indeed the chromolithographic plates in The Aquarium and Actinologia Britannica were prepared from his own watercolours and were a major advance in natural history book illustration intended for the mass market' (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography).

First edition; 8vo; colour frontispiece and 11 plates of which 10 are colour and 1 is plain, engravings within the text, single leaf of publisher's ads at rear, some light spotting, offsetting from the plates to the tissue guards, hinges slightly cracked; corners bumped, cloth a little rubbed, particularly at the extremities, with some small spots and marks, very good condition; 362pp.

Freeman, British Natural History Books 1390.