Paris, Denné le jeune, 1806. Large folio (54.5 x 36.5 cm). Single plate, printed in colour, augmented by hand. In passepartout (70 x 50 cm).

A seldom-seen, lovely illustration of a neotropical puffbird, the black-breasted puffbird, Notharchus pectoralis, by the famous French zoological and botanical illustrator Jacques Barraband (1767-1809). "His illustrations were considered the most accurate ones made during the early 1800s" (Wikipedia). Puffbirds are named from their fluffy plumage. This plate, numbered 39, was published in François Levaillant's famous work on birds of paradise, Histoire naturelle des oiseaux de paradis et des rolliers. Some scattered foxing, otherwise good. Anker, 304; Nissen ICB, 559; Sitwell, Fine Bird Books, p. 118; Zimmer, p. 393.