London, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1884. Large 4to (29.2 x 24.6 cm). Half-title, title page; 670 pp.; 68 text engravings; 79 tinted lithographed plates; one large, multi-folded map in red and black. Original dark green blind-stamped and pebbled cloth. Spines with gilt title. Dark brown endpapers.

This volume, edited by the father of modern oceanography, the Canadian-born Scottish oceanographer, marine biologist and limnologist John Murray (1841-1914), contains five "Challenger" monographs numbered 26 to 30, as follows: Zoology XXVI: R. Bergh. Report on the Nudibranchia. 153, viii pp; 14 plates. Zoology XXVII: L. von Graff. Report on the Myzostomida. 82 pp.; 16 plates, one text figure. Zoology XXVIII: P. P. C. Hoek. Report on the Cirripedia. Anatomical Part. 47 pp.; 6 plates. Zoology XXIX: W. Turner. Report on Human Skeletons. First Part - The Crania. 130 pp. 7 plates, eight text engravings. And Zoology XXX: G. Busk. Report on the Polyzoa. First Part. - Cheilostomata. 216, 24 pp.; 36 plates, 59 text engravings. In all, four works on invertebrates - including a detailed work on nudibranchs with many new species written by the Danish malacologist and foremost 19th-century nudibranch specialist Ludwig (or Ludvig) Sophus Rudolph (or Rudolf) Bergh (1824-1909); a work on cirripedes (barnacles) by the Dutch marine zoologist Paulus Peronius Cato Hoek (1851-1914), who was recommended by Charles Darwin, who regarded himself as unfit to do the work; a large work on Bryozoa by the British naval surgeon, palaeontologist, mammalogist, and invertebrate zoologist (in particular Bryozoa and Tunicata) George Busk (1807-1886); a finely illustrated work on an order of small marine worms, which are parasitic on echinoderms, in particular crinoids, with several plates in chromolithography - and one anatomical-anthropological (craniology) study. Uncut. A mint copy, clean and unmarked. Rare, especially in this wonderful, superior condition. Cat. BM(NH), p. 716; Nissen ZBI, 4754.