A History of the Birds of New Zealand.

preferred second edition in deluxe red morocco

Second and preferred edition of the definitive work on Aotearoa New Zealand's native birds, in the publisher's deluxe red morocco, elaborately gilt with designs of takahē and kākāpō. This copy from the library of prominent ornithologist William G. Hale, a leading specialist on wading birds, particularly redshanks. Hale was the author of numerous scientific works, as well as volumes on antiquarian ornithology books.

The first edition of 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, for which he acquired significant additional material. Each of the four parts of the new edition contains 'four lithographs printed in colour from coloured drawings by Keulemans, to whose skill as a bird-artist they testify. Keulemans himself has drawn or superintended the drawing of the coloured stones, the printing of the plates being carried out by Judd & Co. The whole issue amounted to 1,000 copies' (Anker, Bird Books and Bird Art 85). Only 250 were available for Europe and America, and 251 copies were reportedly lost in the wrecks of the Matai and the Assaye in 1890.

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).

Second edition; imperial quarto (36 x 25.5 cm); 48 chromolithographic plates, 2 lithographs, some spotting to early and late leaves but plates generally clean; publisher's deluxe red morocco elaborately gilt with takahē and kākāpō tools, marbled endpapers, inner dentelles and all edges gilt, binding lightly ribbed, an excellent set; 250 pp plus 6-page extracts from reviews, 359 pp.

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