A monograph of the weaver-birds, Ploceidae, and arboreal and terrestrial finches, Fringillidae.

Maidstone: Author, 1888.
Quarto, 31 lithographic plates (the first six plates handcoloured) by F. W. Frohawk. [5 parts] in a single volume [all published]. Contemporary half morocco, lacks title page, with the bookplates of John E. Thayer and H. Bradley Martin, a handsome copy free of blemishes.

A curious copy because of the absence of the title page. Most copes are found in a publisher's brown cloth with a title page. The book was published in fascicles and this copy was presumably bound from these fascicles, probably prior to the production of a title page.

The only monograph ever published on the weavers and sparrows. It was "… planned to extend to between 90 and 95 parts and to embrace all the known species of Ploceidae and Fringillidae. In the fragmentary form in which the publication remains, the pagination and plate-numbering are incomplete…" (Zimmer). Copies with all plates coloured are rare and typically most copies have between 3 and 12 plates coloured. The attractive plates are by F. W. Frohawk who is best known for his illustrations of Butler's Foreign finches in captivity 1893 and Wilson's Aves Hawaiiensis 1890-1899. Edward Bartlett (1836-1908) was the curator of the Maidstone Museum (1874-1890) and later the Sarawak Museum.

Mengel 178; Mullens and Swann 48; Nissen IVB 77; Zimmer pp. 41-42.