Young Naturalist's Book of Birds : Anecdotes of the Feathered Creation

London: Joseph Rickerby. Good+ with no dust jacket. 1838. First Edition. Hardcover. Modern rebind in marbled paper with paper spine label, text tone and random foxing, light cock, otherwise light wear. Solid hardcover. ; Features bird illustrations by Edwin Landseer, engraved by Wright and Folkard, with tissue guards. As is common in the period, the bird illustrations feature death. Dedicated to Audubon. "Connected with natural history there are numerous facts and anecdotes, which, though interesing and instructive, could scarcely claim a place in treatises purely scientific. They, however, very frequently shed considerable light on what may be termed the moral character of animals, and recommend themselves besides by their relation to human agents. From among the prodigious mass of miscellaneous materials of this kind which may be found scattered about in books of travel, in histories, in periodical works, and even in the daily journals, I have made a selection of such as belong to ornithology, always giving the preference to those anecdotes and narratives that illustrate the habits of birds existing in some measure under the influence of civilization." - Preface. Percy Bolingbroke St John was a prolific Victorian Era journalist, writer and traveler. First Edition of this collection of bird lore, Saint John's first book. ; (xii), 168 pages .