Reports on the collections made by the British Ornithologists' Union Expedition and the Wollaston Expedition in Dutch New Guinea 1910-1913.

London: Francis Edwards, 1916.
Quarto, two volumes, erratically paginated ten chromolithographs (including eight of birds by Gronvold, two of insects) and 27 uncoloured plates (including four of reptiles and one of fish). Publisher's blue wrappers, uncut, limited to 150 numbered copies (this copy is number 139), upper wrapper of volume two detached otherwise a fine set.

The British Ornithologists' Union was established in 1858 and to celebrate its jubilee it was decided to sponsor a major expedition to the Snow Mountains of Dutch New Guinea, now Irian Jaya. 9,000 pounds was raised by private donation and Government grants and the first of two expeditions, led by Walter Goodfellow, set sail from England in September 1909. This expedition encountered great difficulties and it was not until February 1913 that a second expedition, led by A. F. R. Wollaston, managed to climb over 15,000 feet to get near the summit of Carstenz Peak, the highest point in the Snow Mountains.

"As Mr Wollaston's book [Pygmies and Papuans, 1912], the official account of the expedition, explains the great physical difficulties of this hitherto unexplored part of New Guinea and other unforeseen circumstances rendered the work of the B. O. U. Expedition quite exceptionally arduous; and if there results of their exploration were not all that had been hoped, it must be remembered that they did all that was humanly possible to carry out the dangerous task with which they had been entrusted. Their work has added vastly to our knowledge of this part of New Guinea ..." (Ogilvie-Grant, W. R. Introduction p. iii).

Both expeditions made important contributions to the zoology of New Guinea, and the paper on birds has some significance. It was also reproduced in octavo form as an Ibis supplement.

Wood p. 262; Zimmer p. 100.