2 volumes, 8vo. 7 color lithographed maps (1 folding, 2 double-page) and 20 wood-engraved plates. (Occasional light spotting.) Original olive green pebbled cloth gilt, top edges gilt, others uncut (extremities rubbed, some splitting at ends with old repairs at joints of vol. I, hinges reinforced in vol. II). Provenance: Leonard Howard Irby (1836-1905) British ornithologist (ownership inscription on vol. II title-page, dated in the year of publication with notation of cost); Conville & Caius College, Cambridge (stamp on folding map verso in vol. I).

ORNITHOLOGIST LEONARD HOWARD IRBY'S COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION, a work that "established evolutionary zoogeography on its modern foundation… [and] few, if any, subsequent works have been more important to the subject" (DSB). Irby was a British army officer and ornithologist known for his extensive studies on the birds of southern Spain and the Strait of Gibraltar region. Outside of his military career, Irby dedicated himself to ornithology, publishing the influential book The Ornithology of the Straits of Gibraltar in 1875, which documented bird species in the region and contributed to the understanding of bird migration between Europe and Africa.