Marshall Rare Books
A Monograph of the Pheasants
"Perhaps the greatest ornithological work of the present century, notable not only for its beauty and the wealth of information it contains, but also for the unusual grace of its prose" (Mengel).
First Edition, London, Witherby & Co, 1918-22, Folio 40.5 x 29.5 cm (16×11¾”), original maroon cloth gilt-lettered, top edges gilt. No. 197 of 600 copies.
4 volumes. Illustrated with 90 colour plates, 88 plates of photogravures (most with multiple images per plate) and 20 distribution maps.
The colour plates are on heavy paper, after paintings by Thorburn, L.A. Fuertes, H. Jones, G.E. Lodge, and others
“Perhaps the greatest ornithological work of the present century, notable not only for its beauty and the wealth of information it contains, but also for the unusual grace of its prose” (Mengel).
Beebe’s text is based not only upon his extensive expeditions through Asia, but also upon his study of the collections of the leading natural history museums around the world.
This is a massive monograph on the delightful pheasant family, filled with beautiful colour plates after well-known bird artists and hundreds of photogravures of pheasant eggs, nests, breeding grounds, and general landscapes. Beebe was Curator of Birds of the New York Zoological Park.
Nissen 84.
