Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum. Vol. I-XXVII

Description:

Vol. 1: Accipitres, or Diurnal birds of Prey (1874); Vol. 2: Striges, or Nocturnal Birds of Prey (1875); Vol 3: Passeriformes or Perching Birds (1877); Vol 4: Passeriformes or Perching Birds Cichlomorphæ Part I containing the families Campophagidæ and Muscicapidæ (1879); Vol 5: Passeriformes Cichlomorphæ Part II - Turdidæ, (Warblers and Thrushes (1881); Vol.6: Passeriformes Cichlomorphæ Part III - Timeliidæ, (Babbling Thrushes Part I (1881); Vol. 7: Passeriformes Cichlomorphæ Part IV - Timeliidæ, (Babbbling Thrushes Part II (1883); Vol. 8: Passeriformes Cichlomorphæ Part V contining the families Paridae and Laniidae (Titmice and Shrikes) and Certhiomorphæ (Creepers and Nuthatchers (1883); Vol. 9: Passeriformes Cinnyrimorphæ containing the families Nectariniidae and Meliphagidae (Sun-Birds and Honey-Eaters (1884); Volume 10: Passeriformes Fringilliformes Part I (1885); Vol. 11: Passeriformes Fringilliformes Part II - Cœrebidæ, Tanagridæ and Icteridæ (1886); Vol. 12: Passeriformes Fringilliformes Part III - Fringillidæ (1888); Vol. 13: Passeriformes Sturniformes (1890); Vol. 14: Passeriformes Oligomyodæ (1888); Vol. 15: Passeriformes Tracheophonæ (1890); Vol. 16: Upupæ, Trochili, and Coraciæ (1892); Vol. 17: Coraciæ and Halcyones (1892);Vol. 18: Scansores containing the Picariæ (1890); Vol. 19: Scansores and Coccyges (1891); Vol. 20: Psittaci, or Parrots (1891); Volume 21: Columbæ, or Pigeons (1893); Vol. 22: Game Birds (1893); Vol. 23: Fulicariæ and Alectorides (1894); Vol. 24: Limicolæ (1896); Vol. 25: Gaviæ and Tubinares (1896); Vol. 26: Plataleæ, Herodiones, Steganopodes, Pygopodes, Alcæ, and Impennes (1898); Vol. 27: Chenomorphæ, Crypturi, and Ratitæ (1895).

A book review published in Nature (Vol. 10, pp 378-380 (1874)) enthusiastically reported that the first volume of an ambitious project to catalogue the extensive bird collections held at the British Museum, London had been published in 1874, stating that ‘Besides the nomenclature and the synonomy of the whole bird-class, it will contain the complete description of each species from the hand of one of our most able and enthusiastic ornithologists’, Richard Bowdler Sharpe (1847-1909). Sharpe was a curator of the bird collection at the British Museum. Between 1874-1898, a team of international ornithologists compiled 27 catalogues, with Sharpe writing eleven of the volumes, and acting as co-author of another two. Other contributors included; Hans Friedrich Gadow (1855-1928); William Robert Ogilvy-Grant (1863-1924), Edward Hargitt (1835-1895), Ernst Johann Otto Hartert (1859-1933), Count Adelardo Tommaso Salvadori (1835-1923), Osbert Salvin (1835-1898), Philip Lutley Sclater (1829-1913), Henry Seebohm (1832-1895) and George Ernest Shelley (1840-1910).

This monumental work described 11,548 species of birds, as described in Sharpe’s obituary (C.E. Fagan, British Birds 1910, Vol. 3: 273-288) ‘The Catalogue embraces not only a list of the specimens contained in the Museum itself, but it gives a full description of every bird in the world known at the time of publication, whether in the Museum or in any other collection; its changes of plumage and the literature referring to its history and determination, together with a brief record of the geographical range of each species and an enumeration of the specimens in the British Museum’.

Early volumes were illustrated with fine hand-coloured lithographs, the later volumes having chromolithographic plates. The famous Dutch bird illustrators Johannes Gerardus Keulemans (1842-1912) and Joseph Smit (1836-1929) produced many drawings for this work. The other two birds artists were; Smit’s son, Pierre Jacques Smit (1863-1960), (who often signed his works Peter Smit), and William Matthew Hart (1830-1908).

'Unquestionably the most important work on systematic ornithology that has ever been published' (Zimmer).

Nissen IVB 175; Fine Bird Books, p. 107; Zimmer, p. 95.

Condition

27 vols, 8vo, orig. cloth, some wear, joints partly split to Vol. VIII, XIII & XIX, with tear to spine in the latter; a few volume lightly shaken. Light stain to lower margin of plates in Vol. XVII, not affecting the images. Some foxing.

Book plates: Vol. II & IV: Charles Francis Wyatt (1820-1906), antiquary and Rector of Broughton, Oxon; Vol. VI: ex libris Collegii Sancti Davidis; Vol. XXII & XXIII: Society of Writers to his Majesty's Signet; Vol. XXIV: note that the volume belonged to the ornithologist Sir Frederick John Jackson (1860-1929) with his annotations, together with book label of Peter Tate (1926- ).