A monograph of the birds forming the tanagrine genus Calliste; illustrating by coloured plates all the known species.

London: John Van Voorst, 1857.
Octavo, 104 pp. 45 handcoloured plates by Oudart, one coloured map. Contemporary half red morocco and marbled boards, later endpapers (?) top edge gilt other edges uncut, minor shelf wear. Two bookplates and single library stamp on front endpaper, a few plates with minor background staining, otherwise a sound attractive copy.

Also bound in,

Sclater, Philip Lutley. Synopsis of the fissirostral family Bucconidae, accompanied by four coloured plates of hitherto unfigured species. London: Samuel Highley, 1854. Octavo, 24 pp., four handcoloured plates by Oudart.

The only colour plate monograph on tanagers and an attractive work.

In an age where exuberant scientific energy and output was the norm among British zoologists Philip Lutley Sclater (1829-1913) was remarkable for his industry. He was the founder and editor of The Ibis, the journal of the British Ornithologists' Union and was secretary of the Zoological Society of London from 1860 to 1903. He published over 1200 zoological papers and authored some of the finest colour plate books of the latter half of the nineteenth century. He was no mere cataloguer of new species and expedition lists; in 1858 he published a paper in the Proceedings of the Linnaean Society setting up six zoological regions which he called the Palearctic, Aethiopian, Indian, Australasian, Nearctic and Neotropical. These zoogeographic regions are still in use.

Anker 448; Fine bird books (reprint) p. 139: Nissen IVB 839; Wood p. 557.