A History of the Birds of New Zealand.

First edition of this 'New Zealand classic... the definitive images of its native birds' (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography).

Issued in four parts, A History of the Birds of New Zealand was 'limited to 500 copies which were sold by private subscription', and its success led Buller to immediately prepare an expanded second edition (Anker, Bird Books and Bird Art 85). This copy, from the library of prominent ornithologist William G. Hale, is in a handsome binding of recent green morocco.

Walter Lowry Buller (1838-1906) was a New Zealand magistrate who 'developed a childhood interest in natural history into a scientific avocation. With a confidence unusual in colonial scientists he set out to describe and name new species of birds himself rather than submitting them to the metropolitan authorities. His Essay on the Ornithology of New Zealand, written for the Dunedin Exhibition in 1865, established him as a local authority on the subject, and, after he sent copies to influential scientists in Britain and Europe, also brought him to wider attention... A History of the Birds of New Zealand (1872–3), illustrated by the ornithological artist J. G. Keulemans, was a fine bird book in the best style' (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography).

First edition; folio (31 x 24 cm); tinted lithographic frontispiece and 35 hand-coloured lithographs after J.G. Keulemans, extracts from reviews and ad for the supplement at rear, bookplate, a few small tape repairs to plates, particularly the frontispiece, contents lightly toned, occasional spits and marks; recent full green morocco, spine gilt in compartments, green morocco labels, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt, a very good copy; 384 pp.

Anker, Bird Books and Bird Art 85; Nissen IVB, Die Illustrierten Vogelbücher 163.