Eastern Persia an Account of the Journeys of the Persian Boundary Commission 1870-71-72. Volume Two. The Zoology and Geology. by Blantford, W. T. [J. G. Keulemans, Illus.]

London: MacMillan, 1876. First edition (pp. frontis, viii, 516, index). Quarto (23 cm) in green cloth, gilt titles to spine, t.e.g. Illustrated by eighteen hand-coloured lithographic plates of birds and mammals by J. G. Keulemans and ten uncoloured lithographs of reptiles and amphibians by G. H. Ford, double-page colour map of Persia ‘divided into zoological provinces’. This copy absent three Keulemans plates. Additional ms. technical ornithological notes with additions and corrections throughout Aves section. Blanford, whose other works include similar reports on regions of Mesopotamia and India, was greatly assisted by a Major St. John who evidently had himself explored and collected widely in eastern Persia and who accompanied Blantford on the 1200 mile expedition from Ankora to Shiraz. (Oddly, while St. John’s contributions are noted in the text, I can find but one reference to him as anything other than ‘Major St. John’ and that is in a footnote signed ‘O. St. John’. Perhaps they didn’t get along. ) Spine edges, top and bottom worn; colour plates peripheries beginning to tan but still bright; binding loosening but holding. A very good copy of a scarce book.