2 volumes, folio (530 x 350 mm). Title-pages and text in English and French, text printed in two columns. 2pp. catalogue of Linnean names at the beginning of each volume, vol. II with 6pp. index at end. Double-page engraved map with hand coloring in volume I; 220 etched plates with hand-coloring by and after Catesby and signed with his monogram, except for plates 61 and 96 in vol. II by Georg Dionysis Ehret; etched head-pieces. (Several leaves with short marginal tears repaired.) Modern diced russia antique, wide foliate gilt border surrounding central gilt lozenge, board edges gilt, uncut. 

Third edition, later issue with all the plates on wove paper, and without the two dedication leaves and leaf of subscribers (not required for this issue). Where visible, plates are watermarked "J. Whatman 1815[-16]."

"Catesby's Natural History is the most famous colour-plate book of American plant and animal life...a fundamental and original work for the study of American species" (Hunt). Catesby studied natural sciences in London, and traveled to Virginia, returning in 1719 with an extensive collection of plants. With the encouragement of Sir Hans Sloane, Catesby returned to America, traveling to Carolina, Georgia, Florida and the Bahamas from 1722-1729. He returned to London to prepare his Natural History, which was first published in parts in 1747. Its popularity was such that a second edition was published in 1754, 5 years after Catesby's death, under the supervision of George Edwards. The third edition of 1771, which follows Edwards revisions of the second edition, appeared in at least two issues: the first produced in 1771 with text and plates on laid paper, and the second produced later, with the text on laid paper but with the plates on Whatman wove paper (such as the present copy). Catesby was "the first to observe and depict North American birds in their natural settings, combining ornithological details with botanical ones" (Edwin Wolf 2nd, A Flock of Beautiful Birds, Philadelphia, 1977, pp.5-7). Anker 95; Fine Bird Books, p.65; McGill/Wood, p.282; Nissen IVB 177.