The Dodo and its Kindred: or the History, Affinities and Osteology of the Dodo, Solitaire and other Extinct Birds of the Islands Mauritius, Rodriguez and Bourbon

Very good copy of the increasingly hard-to-find monograph on the extinct dodo, Raphus cucullatus, and Rodrigues solitaire, Pezophaps solitaria.

First edition of this finely illustrated classic

Complete in two parts: Part I. History and External Characters of the Dodo, Solitaire and other Extinct Brevipennate Birds by H. E. Strickland, and Part II: Osteology of the Dodo and Solitaire by A.G. Melville.

With two hand-coloured lithographs after the famous 17th-century paintings of the dodo by Roelandt Savery

Altogether 18 lithographic illustrations (Numbered I-XV with three bis plates III*, IV*, and IX*) of dodo and solitaire specimens, landscapes, bones, skulls and reconstructions drawn and lithographed by Joseph Dinkel, Tuffen West and Werner, as well as nine woodcuts in the text. With errata slip and 12-page catalogue of new books in rear.

Hugh Edwin Strickland (1811-1853) was an English geologist, ornithologist, naturalist and systematist. His works include Outline of the Geology of the Neighbourhood of Cheltenham 1844, Bibliographia zoologiae et geologiae 1848, The Dodo and its Kindred 1848, Ornithological Synonyms 1855, etc. He was killed by a train on the track near Retford where he was examining geological strata in a railway cutting.

Original publisher's light blue cloth binding with gilt stamp of a dodo on the front cover and a solitaire on the rear, spine neatly re-backed with original gilt title replaced, spine and covers blind-stamped, slight staining and darkening to boards, t.e.g., front inner gutter strengthened with archival tape over remains of a sellotape repair. Interior very good with fine impressions of the lithographic plates, two with delicate hand colour, one tinted fold-out. A few scattered spots and faint finger smudges but generally very good.

"Very scarce. In original cloth. Handcoloured and other plates" written in pencil on front endpaper. Ticket of bookbinders "Westleys and Clark, London" at rear endpaper.

The list of 124 subscribers includes Prince Albert, zoologist Sir William Jardine and his engraver William Home Lizars, ornithologists John Gould, F.O. Morris and William Yarrell, natural history artist Prideaux John Selby, along with libraries, zoological societies and aristocratic amateurs.

Very good copy of this scarce classic on the dodo.