Subscriber's copy of Gould's first monograph. The Ramphastidae (Family of Toucans) is without doubt the finest and most comprehensive work on this family of Birds. Lear uses colour in a fantastic (in the original sense) manner to convey the beauty of these birds. 'The toucans, with their enormous beaks, have gone in for unimaginable transformations of their basic colours; their eyes, even, vary from bright blue to red. The beaks can be black, with an upper edge of pale straw yellow, or the beak is crimson red with a black dividing line, but sometimes the bill is green, olive green; or the lower bill a bright blue with green shadings.' (Sitwell). The Toucan family is limited to Mexico, Central and South America and some West Indian islands; the uncoloured plate accompanies Richard Owen's final chapter on the anatomy of the Toucan, written especially for the work.

First edition.Folio (54 x 36 cm.), dedication leaf, list of subscribers, and 33 hand-coloured lithographs by and after Edward Lear, John and Elizabeth Gould, each heightened with gum arabic, one uncoloured lithographed anatomical plate by and after G. Scharf; bound contemporary half green morocco gilt, spine gilt in compartments.



Henry Hall Gage, 4th Viscount Gage (1791-1877): named on List of Subscribers ("Gage, the Right Hon. Viscount, M.A., M.R.I., F.Z.S..."), with his bookplate.
Anker 170; Ayer/Zimmer 252; Balis 102; Fine Bird Books 77; McGill/Wood 364; Nissen IVB 378; Sauer 3