The Gardens and Menagerie of the Zoological Society Delineated; Birds

8vo [23 x 14.5 cm]; 2 volumes, xii, 308; viii, 328 pp, title page in each volume with engraved vignettes, numerous attractive engravings throughout, index and half title page in each volume. original cloth, gilt spine title lettering, small bookseller's label on endpaper, initials of previous owner on endpaper, covers bit faded, light internal hinge crack, minor foxing on few margins, very good, interior is clean and unmarked. A picture of th Bennet was a founder of the Zoological Society. The illustrations and vignettes are by and after various artists including Thomas Bewick and Edward Lear. It contains Lear's first published illustration (page 125 has his illustration signed with his initials). Noakes 208. Lear went on to become one of the more famous bird painters, landscape painter and a writer of nonsense verses. His paintings illustrate many of John Gould's famous bird books, although Lear received little credit at the time. Wood 231. Freeman 277. Nissen 314. Volume I is on mammals, volume II on birds.