CHENU (Jean-Charles). Ornithology of the hunter. Natural his - Lot 118

CHENU (Jean-Charles). Ornithology of the hunter. Natural history - Habits - Habits - Hunting birds of plains, woods and marshes. First edition, complete with 50 plates, of one of the finest hunting books of the 19th century. Paris, J. Rothschild, 1870. Large in-8 (273 x 176 mm). Bottle-green half-maroquin with corners, spine ribbed with gilt title and author's name, gilt place and date of edition at feet, gilt headband. 4 ff.n.ch., 168 pages, 2 ff.n.ch. ; 50 chromo-typographic plates in serpents. Spine slightly oiled, corners very slightly rubbed, rare foxing, ink stains at foot of page 168. First edition and first printing of the engravings. Jean-Charles Chenu, a military doctor by trade and training, also had a great career as a naturalist. Between 1842 and 1854, he published his "Illustrations conchyliologiques", in which he undertook the description and classification of all known shell types, and between 1850 and 1861, a vast 31-volume "Encyclopédie d'histoire naturelle". He also wrote two other ornithological works: "La fauconnerie ancienne et moderne" (Paris, L. Hachette et Cie, 1862) and his "Leçons élémentaires sur l'histoire naturelle des oiseaux" (Paris, L. Hachette, 1862). [Thiébaud, 191; Souhart 100]. A good copy in a very well-made binding.