[Rarebooks] fa: ZOOLOGY of the PACIFIC RAILROAD EXPLORATIONS & SURVEYS 1856 - w/ 122 PLATES (incl. 28 Colored Birds)

[ArCh]

Auctions ending Sunday, March 19. Images and more details can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

https://tinyurl.com/2n9v76rr

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA


[Spencer F. Baird; Charles Girard; John L. Leconte, et al:] Reports of Explorations and Surveys, to Ascertain the Most Practicable and Economical Route for a Railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean... Volume X: General Report upon the Zoology of the Several Pacific Railroad Routes. Washington: A. O. P. Nicholson, printer, 1856(-57). Thick 4to (30 cm) in modern calf-backed marbled boards, spine lettered and decorated in gilt, new endpapers; [4], 16, xiv, 400, 27, [3], 64, 24, [8], 97, [1], 13, [1] pp.; with 122 lithograph plates, including 28 hand-colored plates of birds.

One of twelve such volumes of Pacific Railroad surveys commissioned by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis and published from 1855-1861. This volume, complete in itself, deals with the zoological discoveries of the surveys and is perhaps the most sought-after single volume in the series. Profusely illustrated, with sections on fishes, reptiles, amphibians, mammals, and birds (the latter with hand-colored plates). Erasure mark to the title-page, intermittent browning to the text leaves and to several plates, a few scattered small spots, else clean and sound and firmly bound in a fresh and attractive modern binding