An Illustrated Natural History of British Butterflies and Moths

Condition

Roy. 8vo, nicely rebound, recent green buckram, raised bands to spine, gt rules, leather title piece, aeg. Some foxing, heavy in places. One page corner torn and repaired without loss. Original owner's name to title - 'C. Donovan junior, 19th Nov 84, Westview Glandore' [Co. Cork, Ireland]. Charles Donovan (1863-1951) was a military doctor (Indian medical service), parasitologist and entomologist. In 1936 he published a Catalogue of the Macrolepidoptera of Ireland. This interesting copy has some underlining to text and many marginal annotations, including some notes on occurrence in Co. Cork. Also pasted in are hand-coloured lithographic figures of several species of Noctuids, including both sexes, varieties and a few larvae, excised from C.G. Barrett's The Lepidoptera of the British Islands (Vol. V, Reeve, 1899). A small water-colour drawing of the puss moth larva tipped in opposite p. 202, with another of the sallow kitten on the opposite page (p. 203). Two leaves of ms notes in Donovan's hand have been bound in at front and rear; at the front a lengthy quote from Charles Darwin's Journal of Researches; at the rear - to recto, notes on two species quoted from [W.F. de V.] Kane, 1886 & 1887; to verso, notes on several more species signed or initialled CD, also from the 1880s. All have some reference to occurrence in Ireland.