Alexander Wilson; Charles Lucian Bonaparte; Sir William Jardine, Bart. AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY; OR, THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BIRDS OF THE UNITED STATES. 3 vols. (complete). London: Whittaker, Treacher, & Arnot; Edinburgh: Stirling & Kenney, 1832. Three-quarter morocco over green cloth-covered boards, raised bands and gilt on spine, top edge gilt, marbled endpapers. Stamped "Bound by Wood. London" and "G. P. Putnam's Sons" on first free endpaper verso. 8vo; 408; 390; 523pp. with index, plus numerous hand-colored plates engraved by Lizars after Wilson's drawings, with tissue guards. Vol. I with portrait frontispiece.

8 3/4 x 6 in. each

Private Collection, Greensboro, North Carolina

Alexander Wilson (1766-1813) was a Scottish-American ornithologist and poet whose work describing and illustrating America's birds came two decades before Audubon's well-known Birds of America.

Boards sunned, corners rubbed, several marks; endpapers with slight waviness, cracking at hinges, bookplates on endpapers and library blind stamp on title page; pages lightly toned with occasional offsetting, light foxing, and lightly frayed edge or small edge/corner chip.