PHEASANTS THEIR LIVES AND HOMES [Volumes I and II] From the Library of Eric Hosking

New York: Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 1931. Book. Illus. by G.E. Lodge, L.A. Fuertes, A Thorburn, C.R. Knight,. Very Good. Hardcover. First Edition. 20cm x 27cm. Complete in two volumes. Volume 1 pp. xxviii, 257; 34 colour and b/w illustrations by Lodge , Thorburn and others. Volume II pp. 309 inc. index , 29 colour and black and white illustrations. Original green hardback binding, very good, the spines of both appear slightly mottled and faded with a little general wear. Contents clean and tight, attractive bookplate from the library of Eric Hosking tot he front pastedowns, a little toning to the endpapers otherwise unmarked, no inscriptions. A very good set with an interesting provenance.[Eric Hosking OBE, Hon FRPS, FBIPP (1909-1991) was widely acknowledged as one of the world's most eminent natural history photographers, "Perhaps the most famous bird photographer ever to have lived" (Gemma Padley). He was pioneering and developed new techniques, especially the use of flash photography and automatic shutter release technology, which enabled him to photograph birds at night and freeze birds in flight for the first time. Famously, when just 28 he lost an eye to a tawny owl while climbing up to a hide in rural Wales, the event which inspired the ingeneous title of his autobiography "An Eye for a Bird", 1970. Over his exceptionally long career he photographed over 1,800 species, and his pictures have appeared in some 1,000 books, including the popular New Naturalist series, of which he was photographic editor. Hosking was not only a photographer of birds but also a highly knowledgeable ornithologist..