THE BIRDS OF TUNISIA

2 volumes: 294 + 410 pages, frontispieces volume 1 - author's caravan approaching Gafsa, volume 2 - author's encampment in the Tunisian Sahara, 2 black and white plates, 15 hand-coloured lithographs by H.Grönvold, 2 folding colour maps, uncut edges, top edges gilt, several pages unopened, foxing mainly on the page edges, half green morocco with matching cloth boards, spines gilt and faded to brown, a very good set.

Joseph Isaac Spadafora Whitaker (Palermo, 19 March 1850 – Rome, 3 November 1936) was a Sicilan-English ornithologist, archaeologist and sportsman. He is mainly known for his work on the birds of Tunisia, and for being involved in the foundation of the Sicilian football club U.S. Città di Palermo.In 1891, already a very keen ornithologist, Whitaker joined the British Ornithologists' Union. Collecting expeditions to Tunisia followed. These extended over a period of ten years (1894–1904). Notebooks kept at the time contain information on the natural history of the birds as well as other fauna and also the flora of Tunisia.The Tunisian bird and bird nest and egg collection was housed in a villa in the grounds of his home “Malfitano” Some of Whitaker's collection of Tunisian birds are in the Natural History Museum, London. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Whitaker_(ornithologist)

Limitations page – unnumbered copy of an edition limited to 250 copies.