Philadelphia, PA, The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 1936. 8vo (19.0 x 13.0 cm). xxv, 456 pp.; full colour frontispiece, numerous fine engravings. Original grey buckram with gilt title on the front board and spine. Map on front endpapers.

The sought-after first edition, first printing of this well-illustrated and influential book on Caribbean birds. Ian Fleming named his world-famous fictional spy after its author, the ornithologist James Bond (1900-1989), after purchasing this work while staying in Jamaica. This is a must for James Bond aficionados. Ian Fleming, an accomplished birder himself, explained the use of Bond's name to Bond's wife as follows: "It struck me that this brief, unromantic, Anglo-Saxon and yet very masculine name was just what I needed, and so a second James Bond was born." The ornithologist was born in Philadelphia, worked there as a curator of the bird department of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia and often visited the West Indies, including Jamaica, where the two men met. The "real" James Bond never complained about Fleming using his name. Provenance: the H.S.P.A. Experiment Station Library, with a label on the spine, their library stamp on the front pastedown, and a small blind-stamp on the title and one text leaf; small, weak damp-stain in top gutter; skilful repair to two text leaf margins; otherwise an excellent, clean copy, with the boards clean and fresh, and the gilt lettering strong.