McWILLIAM, John Morell. Birds of the Firth of Clyde

£650 · Offered by Henry Sotheran Ltd

Estuarine Ornithology McWILLIAM, John Morell. Birds of the Firth of Clyde London: H.F.G. Witherby Ltd. 1936. 8vo. Original vellum over boards, spine lettered directly in gilt; pp. 164, 10 photographic plates mounted at large on brown card with tissue guard, lithographic map by George Philip Son, Ltd. facing p. 25; title-page printed in red and black; slight wear to spine ends; a little foxing to endpapers; nonetheless a fine copy. First edition, one of only ten deluxe copies bound in vellum, of McWilliams’s follow-up to his Birds of the Island of Bute , describing over two hundred and fifty species in the Firth of Clyde, Ayrshire, Renfrewshire, Buteshire, Dumbartonshire, and southern Argyllshire. The Reverend McWilliam (1883–1968), Fellow of the Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh, was the first Honorary President of the Scottish Ornithologists’ Club and was affectionately known as ‘Scotland’s Minister for Ornithology’. He was certainly well-connected, judging by the acknowledgement of the Earl of Dumfries as an ornithological colleague (p. 9). The book itself received a good write-up in Nature : ‘The house of Witherby, under the direction of a distinguished ornithologist, is justly renowned for its bird-books, both technical and popular … Mr. McWilliam’s book fills a gap among the local faunistic studies of its kind. It gives a straightforward and useful account of the occurrence of different species in the Firth of Clyde and the counties bordering it: the area, of course, i

• Binding: Hardcover

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.