The Natural History of the British Surface-Feeding Ducks

London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1902. xiv, 107, [1], 41 col plates, 8 photogravures, 16 b/w plates. 345x320mm. HB. Large-4to, orig. cloth, gt lettering to spine and front board, teg, some wear to extremities, corners lightly bumped. Light foxing to endpapers; old light water stains to lower inner corner of pages and plates, in places almost imperceptible, and to upper inner margin of Index leaves. Overall, an attractive copy. The present copy is copy No. 361 of 600.. First edition - large paper edition limited to only 600 copies. An account, based on personal observations, of the habits and modes of life of the forms of birds treated in the book and of the circumstances connected with their periodical change of plumage. The figures of birds are mostly drawn from the specimens in the author's collection; a few rare forms are figures from specimens in the collection of Walter Rothschild, while Heatley Noble's collection was used for the eggs and young birds in down. The illustrations were executed from drawings by the author or from photographs, with the exception of the water-colour drawings for eight of the coloured plates made by Archibald Thorburn. The coloured plates are mostly executed in chromo-lithography by W. Greve, and a few by the three colour process by Andre & Sleigh, Bushey. John Guille Millais (1865-1931) was British a naturalist, distinguished wildlife artist, and also wrote a two-volume biography of his father, the artist John Everett Millais (1829-1896).Anker, 340; Nissen IVB, 635..