Paris, Lamy, [1836-1839]. Oblong folio (22.4 x 31.4 cm). 92 [of 124] finely lithographed and hand-coloured plates. Contemporary full diced russia. Spine with gilt ornamental cartouche and title; boards with gilt borders and gilt floral cornerpieces. Patterned endpapers. All edges gilt.

One of best-illustrated French ornithological works, published in 62 livraisons, with fine, hand-coloured engravings by some of the best natural history illustrators of their time, viz. Éduard Traviès de Villers (1809-1876) - who worked for George Cuvier and other zoologists - Jean Delarue, and a Mr Thiolat, about whom little is known, except that he produced many fine palaeontological illustrations for the Mémoires de la Société géolgique de France. Some French sites list him as the engraver François Thiollet (1782-1859), but that seems unlikely as his name is clearly and consistently spelled Thiolat. The French geologist and palaeontologist Étienne Jules Adolphe Desmier de Saint-Simon, Vicomte d'Archiac (1802-1868) even named a fossil coral after him, Guettardia thiolati. Present are the following plates: 2-3, 6-8, 10-12, 14-19, 21, 23-25, 27, 30, 33, 36, 39, 41, 43-50, 52, 55-58, 60-65, 67-69, 71-72, 74-77, 79-82, 84-86, 88-95, 97-100, 103-107, 109-117, 119-124. The text - not present - was by the renowned French explorer, zoologist and palaeontologist Alcide Dessalines d'Orbigny (1802-1857), a key figure in French natural history during the 1840s-1850s, who is perhaps best-known for his travels through South America - resulting in one of the finest natural history works, Voyage dans l'Amérique méridionale, the zoological contributions (chiefly ornithology and Mollusca) to Ramon de la Sagra's Histoire physique, politique et naturelle de l'Ile de Cuba, and his palaeontological works. Nissen records 62 parts, comprising 124 plates. Rare in any state. OCLC reports only nine copies - not all complete as published - in libraries worldwide. Nissen IVB, 696; Sitwell, Fine Bird Books, pp. 91-92. Neither in Anker nor in Zimmer, underscoring its rarity.