LESSON (René-Primevère). Les trochilidées... - Lot 516 - Kâ-Mondo

LESSON (René-Primevère). Les trochilidées ou les colibris et les oiseaux-mouches, followed by a general index, in which are described and methodically classified all the races and species of the genus trochilus. Paris, Arthus Bertrand, 1832. In-8, [2] f., IV-171-XLIII p. (Index général et synoptique des oiseaux du genre trochus), plates, period marbled cardboard, garnet-edged spine (wear to corners and headpieces; foxing; angular wetness to last 15 plates). 66 engraved and colored plates illustrating the birds described, engraved by Marie Nicolas Oudet after drawings by Jean Gabriel Prêtre (1769-1849) and Antoine Germain Bevalet (1779-1850). René-Primevère Lesson (1794-1849), a marine physician from Rochefort, was in charge of the Natural History Department in his native town. After becoming a regular member of the Navy's Medical Corps, he embarked as second-in-command surgeon on board La Coquille to accompany Duperrey's scientific circumnavigation in 1822-1825. In 1831, he published a major work on ornithology, listing thousands of birds and richly illustrated, which was to remain an authority for decades. His work on hummingbirds was no less significant: Lesson described over 100 of the 330 species of hummingbirds known today.