Histoire naturelle des oiseaux-mouches, ouvrage orné de planches dessinées et gravées [...].

2 vols, 8vo: xlvi-223 pp. & 4to: 86 pls (foxing in the text).

Contemp. half light brown calf, gilt tooled spines with flat raised bands (faded spines, lacks on caps & hinges somehow worn, turn-ins dulled).

First edition of this fundamental and classic treatise on hummingbirds. Complete with 86 engraved hand-coloured plates (incl. 48bis). A previous owner of this copy reassembled the plates in a 4to album, retained by corners on brown paper and protected by tissue guards. Lesson (1794-1849) was a French surgeon, naturalist, ornithologist and herpetologist. He travelled in the Pacific where he collected specimens with Dumont d'Urville. Ref. Ronsil 1774, p. 290. - Nissen 547.