Lot 43: 

SIR RICHARD OWEN (1804-1892)
Memoirs on the Extinct Wingless Birds of New Zealand. London: John van Voorst, 1879. 2 vols, 4° (304mm x 245mm). Folding lithographic frontispiece by J. Gould and H.C. Richter and one lithographic plate in vol. I, 127 lithographic plates and one photographic plate including 23 folding, and one folding map of New Zealand. (Frontispiece and title page of vol. I lightly spotted, variable scattered spotting to vol. II). Contemporary half black morocco, gilt lettering to spine compartments (some light wear).

FIRST EDITION OF 'A CLASSIC TREATISE' (Wood). Owen's fascinating work, containing his 'revised and numerous contributions' to the subject of the moa, the giant flightless birds of New Zealand. When a sailor brought a moa's femur to England in 1839, it was thought to be an ox-bone; Owen was the first to recognize it as a bird fossil, describing it in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society, part vii, 1839, and presenting his monograph on the Dinoris in the Transactions of the Zoological Society, vol iii, in 1843. These, and a further 41 articles are included in this work on the Apteryx, Notornis, Harpagornis and several species of Dinornis. Nissen IVB, 702. Hocken p.321; Wood/McGill 509.
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