London, The Trustees of the British Museum, 1858. Small 8vo (21.6 x 13.3 cm). xvi, 160, 8 pp.; 12 finely lithographed plates. 20th-century black buckram with silver title on the spine.

An important catalogue, describing the extremely rich amphibian collection of the British Museum of Natural History in London. Written by the German-British herpetologist Albert Carl Ludwig Gotthilf Günther (1830-1914). Included are descriptions and illustrations of new species of frogs and toads. It also contains many data on variability, distribution, distinctive characters, a chronology of the number of species known to science, a geographical index, etc. In the rear is an 8 pp. advertisement describing and pricing all catalogues of the zoological collections in BM(NH) published up to May, 1857. Provenance: mounted on the front cover verso, a pictorial bookplate. Very small, hardly noticeable damp-stain to the lower margin, near the gutter; an occassional spot; some more foxing to the last plate and the first advertisement leaf. Otherwise, a very good, clean, bound copy.