Catalogue of the Animals of North America.
Item #76660
FORSTER, John Reinhold. A Catalogue of the Animals of North America. Containing an Enumeration of the Known Quadrupeds, Birds, Reptiles, Fish, Insects, Crustaceous and Testaceous Animals; Many of Which Are New, and Never before Described. To Which Are Added, Short directions for Collecting, Preserving, and Transporting, All Kinds of Natural History Curiosities. London: B. White, 1771. 1st ed. 43pp. Frontis. Bound in period-style calf-backed marbled boards, gilt-ruled spine, red morocco spine label. Light scattered foxing, heads of four leaves and frontis. professionally restored, else very good. Rare. Meissel III:350. Forster, a German naturalist, was the official botanist on Cook's second voyage. With his son, Georg, they published their own account of that voyage, as well as numerous other important works on botany and natural history in America, Australasia, and the Pacific. Forster also translated into English the accounts of Bossu and Peter Kalm. This work is the catalogue of North American fauna to which Forster alluded in the third volume of Kalm's travels. He seems to have relied upon the accounts of Catesby, Edwards, and Pennant, and hoped to encourage a major work on the natural history of America. The final nine pages contain "Short Directions for Lover and Promoters of Natural History, in What Manner Specimens of All Kinds May Be Collected, Preserved, and Transported to Distant Countries. The frontis. shows "an elegant little Falcon, drawn and engraved from a fine specimen lately brought over from North America."
Price: $7,500.00