Natal Birds

Pietermaritzburg: P. Davis & Sons, 1899

4to (22,1 x 14,7 x 1,5cm) v + 215pp. + iv appendix and index. Original read hard cover binding, with gilt lettering to front board. Red speckling to the edges of textblock. With hand-coloured lithograph frontispiece.

The Woodward brothers (as they are known) were Richard Blake Woodward (1848 – c. 1905) and John Deverell Stewart Woodward (1849 – c.1905), who were English missionaries and ornithologists. Through their field expeditions, specimen collecting and publications, they, along with Arthur Stark, established a basis for 20th-century ornithology in the southern African region.

Their ornithological publication, Natal Birds of 1899, introduced 386 bird species of Zululand, the Colony of Natal and the eastern Cape Colony. It constituted the first regional list for southern Africa, and recorded the status of many species.

It is not yet known where the brothers were buried, and their publication Wanderings in America has not been traced. By some accounts one of the brothers drowned in the Tugela River. (wikipedia.com)

Condition: Good. Light rubbing and a few small stains to the boards. Some sunning to spine. Light shelfwear and a few small chips to the top and tail of spine. Light browning to the front and rear endpapers and pastedowns. Notes in pencil to front free endpaper. Splits to the gutters between the endpapers and free endpapers. Text is clean and clear, and copy is still well bound.