The Birds of North America; The Descriptions of Species Based Chiefly on the Collections in the Museum of the Smithsonian Institution

4to [29 x 23 cm]; 2 volumes, lvi, 1,005; vii pp, 100 fine hand-colored lithographed plates, index and tables in text volume. plate volume in contemporary half calf, spine gilt, front internal hinge re-enforced, spine foot with large chip, marbled edges; text volume in newer black cloth and light staining and foxing, plates clean and bright. A picture of this book is available u The text volume is from the Reports of Explorations and Surveys to Ascertain the Most Practicable and Economical Route for a Railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, Volume IX, and was later reprinted verbatim as the text volume in Baird and Cassin's The Birds of North America, and is identical in all respects except for the title page. The text volume in this set is an actual Volume IX from the Pacific railroad set. Many of the plates were also first printed in the Pacific railroad set or in the US & Mexican Boundary Survey of 1859. About half of the plates were prepared for the present work. Nissen 62. Anker (Bird Books and Bird Art) 22: "All of the plates are said to have been carefully retouched with this edition in view; several of them were redrawn entirely from better and more characteristic specimens of the birds. . . the work was re-issued in 1870 in an almost unaltered form". Wood 217. Bennett 7: "This is the first separate and complete edition, being a reissue, retitled of Vol. 9, Pacific Railroad Reports, 1858". The plates are quite attractive, many of the birds shown with backgrounds, others perched on branches. Fine Bird Books 58. The 148 birds illustrated were unknown to Audubon.