Richard Bowdler Sharpe and Claude Wilmott Wyatt | A Monograph of the Hirundinidae, 1885-1894, 2 volumes

Richard Bowdler Sharpe and Claude Wilmott Wyatt

A Monograph of the Hirundinidae. London: Henry Sotheran & Co., 1885-1894

2 volumes, 4to (316 x 252 mm.), 103 hand-coloured lithographed plates after Wyatt printed by the Mintern Brothers, 26 partially hand-coloured lithographed maps, 15 double-page tables, later half morocco, spine with raised bands in six compartments, top edge gilt, others uncut, marbled endpapers, spine slightly sunned

This detailed monograph includes a study of 109 species of swallows with special attention paid to the migration and geographical distribution of the birds, which are written about at length. Wyatt's plates, printed by Minturn Brothers, often depict the birds in settings appropriate to their habitat and country of origin.

Bowdler Sharpe was an accomplished British ornithologist and writer. He started his career working for a bookseller, and when he was just nineteen, was made librarian of the Zoological Society of London. After several years, he moved on to work with the bird collections at the Department of Zoology at the British Museum, where he spent time classifying, cataloguing, and acquiring new collections. It was during his tenure at the museum that he also worked on his writings and published A Monograph of the Hirundinidae. Sharpe was also John Gould's assistant for many years, and the only man knowledgeable enough and sufficiently attuned to the famous ornithologist's vision to complete several of his works.

LITERATURE:

Fine Bird Books, p. 107 (incorrectly calling for 104 lithographed plates); McGill/Wood 565; Nissen IVB 868; Yale/Ripley 262; Zimmer 378