Author: Butler, A. G.
Title: Birds of Great Britain and Ireland. Order Passeres, complete in two volumes.
Description: London, Caxton, [1907-1908]. Two volumes in two. Large 4to (28.7 x 22.9 cm). Title pages, 434 pp. [I: (iv), 210; II: (iv), 216]; 115 [60; 55] tissue-guarded chromolithographed plates, of which eight with eggs. Original uniform green, gilt-bordered half morocco over green linen boards. Spines with gilt title. Marbled endpapers. Top edges gilt. = A very well-illustrated work on the passerine birds, including most "song birds" of Great Britain and Ireland, and in fact useful for the whole of northwestern Europe and beyond, as it includes vagrant species not normally known from the British isles. The drawings by the Danish bird painter Henrik Grönvold (1858-1940) and his British colleague Frederick William Frohawk (1861-1946) are superb. Arthur Gardiner Butler (1844-1926) is principally known as an entomologist (lepidopterologist), and ornithologist. In 1896-1898 he published British Birds with their nests and eggs in six volumes. The present work is an updated edition, limited to the passerine birds. According to Zimmer, "The text includes discussions of 26 species not in the earlier volumes, 18 of which occupy an appendix... The plates of the birds appear to be new". According to Nissen published in 1910, but apparently the years given above are correct. Provenance: from the Wolley Dod library of Edge Hall. Old (1913) dedication by F. Wolley Dod to his son in the front free endpaper verso Spines a bit discoloured; inner joints reinforced. Some scattered, mostly very light foxing, mainly to the endpaper versos and first blanks, outer margins and paper edges; one old, small, skilful repair to one plate margin, otherwise a very good, complete set. Nissen IVB, 167; Zimmer, pp. 120-121.

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