A NATURAL HISTORY OF THE NESTS AND EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS

With Two Hundred and Forty-Eight Plates

In three volumes

Fourth Edition: I. xix, [1], 177, [3]; II. viii, 155; III. x, xi, [1], 207 pages,  248 chromolithograph plates)half green morocco (spines faded to brown),  green cloth sides, marbled endpaper with two bookplates, top edges gilt, other edges uncut, a very good set.

Zimmer (J.T.) Catalogue of the Edward E. Ayer Ornithological Library, Part II, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, 1926, page 444, 'In the present edition the text is much altered from that of the first and second editions, 1866-67 & 1870-71. The numbering of the plates is the same (with interpolations indicated by the figures with asterisks), and the plates are of the same design as the originals but are chromolithographs not hand coloured. An introduction (pp. V-XIII) is from the pen of Tegetmeier who is probably responsible for many of the changes in the work.'

'Francis Orpen Morris (25 March 1810 – 10 February 1893) was an Anglo-Irish clergyman, notable as "parson-naturalist" (ornithologist and entomologist) and as the author of many children's books and books on natural history and heritage buildings. He was a pioneer of the movement to protect birds from the plume trade and was a co-founder of the Plumage League. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Orpen_Morris)