Author: J. A. Harvie-Brown
Title: The Capercaillie in Scotland
Description: Edinburgh, David Douglas, 1879 . First edition. Cloth. A smart copy of the very scarce first edition of J. A. Harvie-Brown's illustrated study of the capercaillie, a large woodland grouse. The scarce first edition of this work from Scottish ornithologist and naturalist John Alexander Harvie-Brown.With a frontispiece, vignette illustration to the title page, one further plate, and double page colour map. Collated, complete.Harvie-Brown discusses the capercaillie in six parts, with an overview of the laws pertaining to the grouse, their history, and their population in various regions.With the bookplate of Robert Washington Oates to the front pastedown. Oates served in the First World War as a private soldier, simultaneously making a substantial fortune through his financial interest in a firm of industrial chemists. After the war ended he became an antique dealer, gaining a reputation in the antiquarian book trade.With a further inscription to the verso of the front free endpaper.In Scotland, the population has declined greatly since the 1960s due to deer fencing, predation and lack of suitable habitat. The population plummeted from a high of 10,000 pairs in the 1960s to fewer than 1000 birds in 1999. In the publisher's original cloth binding. Bumping to spine head and tail, with marks to head of front board. Hinges strained, bookplate and bookseller's label to front pastedown. Inscription to verso of front free endpaper. Front free endpaper and following ten leaves - including frontispiece and title page - detached but present. Otherwise firmly bound. Pages bright, with instances of spotting and handling marks throughout, most concentrated to fore edge of pages. Good . Ill.: Not Stated. Good .

Keywords: Capercaillie Scottish birds John Alexander Harvie-Brown Scottish birds Not Stated


See more books from our catalog: Science, Medicine & Natural History