BECHSTEIN, JOHANN MATTHÄUS.

Leipzig, bey S. L. Crusius, 1791-1795. 8vo. Engraved frontispiece,XVI,840 pp. & 18 engraved plates + engraved frontispiece,XX,(2),800 pp. & 12 engraved plates + engraved frontispiece,XVIII,(1,1 blank),946 pp. & 19 engraved plates. Three volumes, contemporary green marbled boards, rubbed and worn, with yellow handwritten paper labels. All edges yellow. Text with some occasional spotting and soiling. Plates slightly furled and thumbed along outer edge, a number of plates with contemporary notes in manuscript. Final plate in part IV soiled and a little dampstained. With Gunnar Brusewitz’s bookplates. Lacking part I, and the alternative title leaves to each volume.

Souhart Bibliographie générale des ouvrages sur la chasse 38. Lindner Bibliographie der deutschen und der niederländischen Jagdliteratur 11.0109.01. Nissen Die illustrierten Vogelbücher 80. A second edition was printed 1801-1809. The volumes present here all had an alternative title leaf, here cancelled, stating that they form parts of the ”Naturgeschichte der Vögel” (Natural history of birds). Volume I (not present here) was printed in 1789 and treats general natural history and mammals. Volume II provides an introduction to the subject, before concentrating on birds of prey, woodland birds, and waterfowl. Marsh and domestic birds are discussed in volume III, with the final volume devoted to an introduction of song birds, together with a ”birds calendar” and index. Johann Matthäus Bechstein (1757-1822) was a German naturalist, forester, ornithologist, and entomologist. He established a number of successful forestry institutes, and was a fervent campaigner for the protection of certain animals and birds that he believed to be beneficial to good forestry management. In England, he was known for his description of songbirds in his work the ”Natural History of Cage Birds” (1795).