Paris, Debure Pere, 1767. Large 4to (29.9 x 22.0 cm) [Binding: 30.9 x 23.1 cm]. Half-title, title in red and black; xii, [iv], 464 pp.; 31 finely engraved and delicately hand-coloured plates (the first acting as frontispiece). Grained full red morocco. Spine with gilt Louis XVI-style ornaments and gilt title; boards with gilt-pattered borders and inner dentelles. Marbled endpapers. All edges gilt.

A fine, very rare contemporarily hand-coloured, large paper copy of the first French edition, by the French ornithologist François Salerne (1705-1760), of the ornithology of John Ray's Synopsis methodica avium & piscium which was first published after the death of Ray (1628-1705) in 1713. Salerne, however, greatly expanded Ray's work with new observations, and added observations made earlier by other naturalists, such as Belon. The finely engraved plates - new to this edition - are by the famous French natural history illustrator François Nicolas Martinet, who also illustrated the birds in Buffon's magnum opus, Histoire naturelle generale (1770-1783), and, according to Sitwell, they were coloured by another great French natural history artist, Jacques de Sève (1742-1788), who illustrated the mammals in Buffon's magnum opus. For this reason, Sitwell suggests that Salerne, rather than Ray should be listed as the principal author. "The whole constitutes a work on ornithology of considerable value, furnishing a description of many species of birds, their habits, physical characters, vulgar names, etc." (Wood, describing another coloured copy). The first plate acts as frontispiece: "in which the sport of hawking, and fishing with trained cormorants, are fairly represented" (Harting). A very wide-margined copy. The colouring quite detailed and accurate. Provenance: an armorial bookplate "terram opes patriae sibi nomen" of the Russian statesman, art historian, archaeologist, collector, philanthropist and Governor-General of Moscow, Count Grigori Alexandrovitch Stroganoff (1770-1857) mounted on the front pastedown. Small tsaristic stamp in the inner margin of the title; a few text leaves a bit toned, wear to board edges, most corners and rear board, otherwise a very good, unmarked copy. Anker, 414; Harting, 176; Nissen IVB, 757; Ronsil, 2683; Sitwell Fine Birds Books, pp. 133, 137; Wood, p. 530; Zimmer, pp. 501-502.