Beschreibung:

Rowley (George Dawson, editor). Ornithological Miscellany, 3 volumes, 1st edition, London: Trübner and Co., 1876-8, 3 tinted lithographic frontispieces, 132 plates (see note) including numerous hand-coloured lithographs after J. G. Keulemans or J. Smit, 3 hand-coloured lithographic maps, original front wrappers bound in, each volume bound without the separate list of plates to each individual part (noted by Zimmer but superseded by the list to the front of each volume), volume 1 without half-title, general title-page, preface leaf, and one errata leaf (of 2), volume 2 without dates of publication leaf and one errata leaf (of 2), effaced library stamp to final page of each volume and to front wrapper opposite, top edges gilt, others untrimmed, modern maroon half morocco, large 4to (33.5 x 24.8 cm) (Qty: 3) Anker 432; Fine Bird Books p. 137; Mullens & Swann p. 496; Nissen IVB 798; Wood p. 543; Zimmer pp. 533-4. 'This valuable serial was published at irregular intervals in 14 parts ... containing important papers by Dresser, Alfred Newton, R. B. Sharpe, P. L. Sclater, and other noted ornithologists' (Wood). Contents include 'The Birds of Mongolia' by Nikolay Przhevalsky, and Rowley on various species native to Fiji and New Zealand, including the kiwi. Copies in commercial records are sometimes described as having 135 plates in addition to the three frontispieces and three maps. Anker also appears to cite 135 plates (41, 57, 37), though it is unclear whether this includes the frontispieces; Nissen and Zimmer's counts of 66 plates in volume one are presumed incorrect. Our copy has 132 plates (40, 56, 36) apart from the frontispiece and maps. It appears to lack a preliminary leaf with a wood-engraved vignette ('Attack on Tasman') to the front of volume one, unlisted but present in the Smithsonian copy (accessed via Biodiversity Heritage Library), in addition to the plate listed to face page 75 in volume 2, although this is also missing from the Smithsonian copy and may not have been issued. Apart from this last plate all those listed are present. The list of plates in volume two includes a wood-engraving at page 365 which is in fact a text illustration, not a plate, and also duplicates mentions of the two plates facing pages 175 and 190: these anomalies may explain inconsistencies in the plate count.