Schlegel, H. [in: Harting, P. (ed.)]
Over de struisachtige vogels (Struthiones). Album der natuur: Een werk ter verspreiding van natuurkennis onder beschaafde lezers van allerlei stand. 1854.
Haarlem, A. C. Kruseman, 1854. 8vo (23.3 x 15.3 cm). 29 pp. [numbered 323-351]; 12 text engravings. Original printed boards.
A contribution to popular science by the German-Dutch ornithologist Hermann Schlegel (1804-1884). However, it includes a fine, well-illustrated review of what was known about the dodo and kindred birds, with seven illustrations. This is the second comprehensive review of these enigmatic extinct birds after Strickland and Melville's The Dodo and its Kindred (1848). We offer the whole Album der Natuur volume, with 33 other contributions and a total of 386 pages. The Album der Natuur series was published over many years. Early volumes, such as this one, are very uncommon. Provenance: small stamp of the Dutch geologist Prof. Dr G. A. F. Molengraaff (1860-1942) in the top margin of the front board. Decommission stamp on half-title. Some shelf wear, lower end of spine cover chipped; a bit foxed, otherwise a very good, complete copy. Cat. BM(NH) p. 25. Neither in Fuller (2002) Dodo: From Extinction to Icon, nor in Van Wissen (1995) Dodo: Raphus cucullatus [Didus ineptus ], nor in Ziswiler (1996) Der Dodo: Fantasien und Fakten zu einem verschwunden Vogel.