Illustrations of the family of Psittacidae, or parrots: the greater part of them species hitherto unfigured, containing forty-two lithographic plates, drawn from life, and on stone ...[facsimile].

London/ New York: Pion/ Johnson Reprint, 1978.
Folio, 42 coloured plates and accompanying text. Publisher's red half morocco, "An essay ..." by Brian Reade tipped in, a very good copy.

An excellent facsimile of one of the most famous of all colour plate bird books. Lear's Psittacidae was the first folio handcoloured bird book and provided the inspiration for the entrepreneurial John Gould and his highly successful publications. Many Australian parrots are figured and almost all the birds were drawn from life at the Zoological Gardens of London. Lear was just nineteen when his book was published.