The Birds of North America; the descriptions of species based chiefly on the collections in the museum of the Smithsonian Institution

Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co, 1860. 1 volume, quarto. (11 1/2 x 9 inches). TEXT VOLUME ONLY. Publisher's purple cloth, covers decoratively stamped in blind, spines lettered in gilt, some fading and wear

An important American work of ornithology by two of the foremost American ornithologists of the 19th century.

The chief virtue of this spectacular contribution to the literature of American ornithology is that it completes the work started by the first octavo edition of John James Audubon's Birds of America (1840-1844) and continued by John Cassin's IIlustrations of the Birds of California, Texas [etc.] (([1853]-56). As Baird notes in the preface: "the first series [of Cassin's work], containing fifty species not given by Audubon, was completed in 1855, and has not been extended, having been superceded by the present work" (Preface, p.I, Atlas vol.). "The present work is part of the General Report on North American birds ... published in October, 1858, as one of the series of "Reports of Explorations and Surveys of a Railroad Route to the Pacific Ocean." In this volume, however, will be found many important additions and corrections, including descriptions of newly-discovered species, &c, not in the original edition.

Bennet p.7; Meisel III, p.484; Sabin 2809.