LATHAM, John — A GENERAL HISTORY OF BIRDS

Winchester. Jacob and Johnson for the Author. First Edition. Eleven quarto (8-1/2" x 10-3/4") volumes bound in 10 in modern half sheep leather and marbled boards. A comprehensive and systematic study "of every new discovery in ornithology," illustrated with 193 hand-colored copperplate engravings by the author. Latham was the first to describe and name a large number of Australian birds, among them the emu, and was a founding member of the Linnean Society in 1788.. John Latham. Occasional light spotting, mostly marginal, a few faint dampstains, light offsetting from text to plates and vice-versa, generally clean and bright. Sunning to spines with light rubbing. Near Fine, beautiful set. Anker 277-278; Nissen 532; Wood 427; Zimmer (pp. 376-377): "A new edition of the author's 'General Synopsis of Birds,' 1781-85 (q.v.), rewritten and enlarged to include the species treated in the two supplements to that work as well as forms discovered since their publication."