Nicoll's Birds of Egypt

Description:

Colour plates by G.E. Lodge, R. Green, A. Thorburn and H. Gronvold.

Fom the Preface (written by the author): 'In 1926 I was approached by Mrs. Nicoll with a view to completing what Michael [Nicoll] had conceived and begun. The Egyptian Government agreed that that the book should be completed, and undertook the expense of publication. […] The backbone and basis of this book is the part dealing the systematic list of birds occurring within the kingdom of Egypt. […] This book aims at achieving two objects. Primarily, as a book of reference enabling both students and casual observers to identify their specimens or observations, and ascertain the status of the bird in Egypt. Secondly, an attempt has been made to introduce some problems connected with migration, the origin of life in the Delta and deserts of Egypt, and an account of bird-life in Egypt during the Dynastic Period.'

Richard Meinertzhagen was a naturalist and British army officer. He served in Kenya (1902-6), where he discovered a new species (Hylochoeros meinertzhageni, the giant forest hog). During the First World War he became chief intelligence officer to the Egyptian expeditionary force that advanced into Palestine. After a short spell as chief political officer in Palestine and Syria he spent 1921-4 as military adviser to the Colonial Office, sharing a room there with his friend T.E. Lawrence. During this time Meinertzhagen had become a convinced Zionist. This conviction did not sit well either with regimental soldiering or with Whitehall. In 1925 he resigned from the army, and spent most of the rest of his long life travelling - mainly in western and central Asia - and studying birds, partly as cover for observing international politics. He returned to the War Office in the winter of 1939-40, and was wounded again off Dunkirk in June 1940, when he took a small boat across to join the rescue. For the rest of the war he was in the Home Guard. Apart from many articles in 'Ibis', he wrote a number of books including the present work, 'Birds of Arabia' (1954), and 'Pirates and Predators' (1959). (ODNB)

Condition

2 vols, 4to, orig. cloth, gt, minor rubbing, corners bumped. Vg.