Beschreibung:

GOSSE, Philip Henry (1810-1888). The Birds of Jamaica ... assisted by Richard Hill [with] Illustrations of the Birds of Jamaica . London: John van Voorst, 1847-1849. Text 12 (188 x 125mm) and plates, large 8 (268 x 182mm). Text with half title, final advertisement leaf and errata slip loosely inserted, the plate volume with title, plate list with advertisement on verso and 52 hand-coloured lithographic plates by and after Gosse, printed by Reeve, Benham and Reeve, each plate with the familar name of the species pencilled in at foot. (Some browning to margins of text volume.) Uniform modern green crushed morocco, panelled in gilt, t.e.g., in uniform green half morocco solander box. Provenance : J. F. Symons-Jeune (bookplates). FIRST EDITIONS of these complimentary works. Gosse spent 18 months in Jamaica, and The Birds of Jamaica is based both on his own observations and the notes of Richard Hill, a resident ornithologist. Although Gosse planned to issue an accompanying volume of plates that would figure each species described in The Birds of Jamaica , his advertisement states that: 'it was subsequently judged desirable to modify this plan, by omitting such species as had been well figured before, in works easily available to the British public.' In consequence the 52 plates eventually chosen for Illustrations of the Birds of Jamaica focus on new and rare species, and are continuously but not successivley numbered from 2 through to 120. Both the plate and text volumes are scarce and difficult to unite. Dance 196; Fine Bird Books p. 77 'very rare'; Nissen IVB 367; Wood p. 363; Zimmer p. 250. (2)