Daniel Giraud Elliot | A monograph of the pittidae, 1893-1895, red morocco gilt

Daniel Giraud Elliot

A Monograph of the Pittidae, or Family of Ant-Thrushes. London: Bernard Quaritch, 1893-1895

Second edition, revised and expanded, folio (577 x 370mm.), 51 hand-coloured lithographed plates after Elliot, P. Oudart, J.G. Keulemans, W. Hart and Maupert, double-page letterpress table, red morocco gilt by Riviere, gilt edges, marbled endpapers, occasional spotting, dampstain to plate 17 ("Pitta Brachyura"), ringstain to recto of plate 24 (not visible on illustration), one small closed tear, extremities lightly bumped 

THE REVISED AND EXPANDED SECOND EDITION. The original monograph, which was published between 1861 and 1863, contained plates and descriptions of 31 species. For the present edition, Elliot completely rewrote the text and Hart and Keulemans produced several new drawings.

In the preface to the present edition, Elliot writes of his love of this particular subject and of his enjoyment in revisiting it ("It is not often that one returns to his first love and finds her, after many years, more beautiful than ever..."). His work includes examples of species from Borneo, Nepal, Ceylon, the Philippines, New Guinea and Cambodia.

LITERATURE:

Fine Bird Books, p. 74; Nissen IVB 292; Zimmer, p. 208