[Rarebooks] fa: UNITED STATES-MEXICAN BOUNDARY SURVEY 1859 - ZOOLOGY VOLUME w/ HAND-COLORED BIRD PLATES

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed on eBay now - along with other rare and/or intriguing Western  
Americana - auctions ending Sunday, Nov. 16. More details and photos  
can be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name  
arch_in_la.

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZarch_in_la

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.

UNITED STATES MEXICO BOUNDARY SURVEY - ZOOLOGY - 1859
25 HAND-COLORED PLATES OF BIRDS + MAMMALS Reptiles FISH

Report on the United States and Mexican Boundary Survey, Made Under  
the Direction of the Secretary of the Interior, by William H. Emory,  
Major First Cavalry, and United States Commissioner. [The Zoology of  
the Boundary]. Washington: 1859. FIRST EDITION. Tall, thick 4to (30 x  
23 cm; 11.75 x 9.5 in) bound in full early calf, red leather spine  
label stamped in gilt; viiii, 62, 32, [2], 35, 35, 85, [3]; + 133  
plates in color and black&white.

This is the ZOOLOGICAL portion of the report (vol. II, part II),  
complete unto itself, the rarest and arguably most desirable part of  
this landmark early survey of the Southwest, "one of the most  
significant of all government reports on western and southern  
Texas" (Jenkins,  Basic Texas Books  57). Containing:

MAMMALS OF THE BOUNDARY by Spencer F. Baird, Assistant Secretary of  
the Smithsonian Institution, with 27 black&white plates.
BIRDS OF THE BOUNDARY by Spencer F. Baird, with 25 hand-colored plates.
REPTILES OF THE BOUNDARY by Spencer F. Baird, with 41 black&white  
plates.
ICTHYOLOGY OF THE BOUNDARY by Charles Girard, M.D., with 40  
black&white plates.

Front pastedown with the bookplate of the "California Academy of  
Sciences : Barton Warren Evermann Bequest" (the only other library  
markings are a discreet blind-stamp to title-page and a rough patch at  
the foot of spine from a removed shelf label). Evermann (1853-1932), a  
prominent icthyologist, was head of the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries'  
division of scientific inquiry, chief of the Alaska Fisheries Service,  
and director of the California Academy of Sciences. Mount Evermann,  
the highest peak of the Revillagigedo Islands off the Pacific coast of  
Mexico, was named in his honor (Wikipedia). Front endpaper with  
Evermann's ownership signature, dated 1882, and the top edge of the  
title-page with his penciled note: "Dec. 1 1869 a present from the  
Hon. A.G. Catten[?]" (presumably a senator or congressman). Evermann  
has also written the Latin names in the margins of the mammal and fish  
plates (in pencil and by and large easily removable)...