BIRDS

Receipt, part printed, part MS., 21 x 13cm, fold marks, good condition. A "Mr Cornish" has purchased Parts 17 & 18 of the Birds of Great Britain. Note; "The Birds of Great Britain" (1862–73).

The three letters total 5pp., 8vo. On aged and damp-stained paper. In the first letter (21 May 1902) Ducie writes that he has that morning received Mellersh's book ('A Treatise on the Birds of Gloucestershire', 1902), and that he is 'delighted with it. Whether it would find a "public" if offered in a cheaper form, I cannot say. It is too scientific for the crowd. | I note only one error. You make out that I shot a Squacco Heron. I bought it or had it given to me from Berkeley'.

80pp., 12mo, inc. original printed covers within paper binding with handwritten title , original covers grubby, minor staining and rucking, rusting at staples, some annotation (crosses), mainly good condition. Everything for the taxidermist. Only copy of a Watkins & Doncaster Catalogue listed on COPAC dated 1917.

8pp., 12mo. On two bifoliums. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. With envelope, with Penny Red stamp and circular postmark in black ink ('B | LERWICK | 5 NO | 80'), addressed to 'The Revd. | C. W. Shepherd | Trosley Rectory | N Maidstone | Kent | England'. Balston and his companion on the trip Edward Bartlett would go on to collaborate with Shepherd on the 1907 publication 'Notes on the Birds of Kent'. The letter begins: 'Dear Shepherd | Here we are in the Arctic Regions, & it being Sunday & snowing fast, are not able to get out, so I sit down to spin you a yarn.

All 4to, with the letters totalling 22 pp, and the list of 'Funghi, East Kent' of 15 pp. All items clear and complete. Three leaves with light staining (one with short closed tear), otherwise all in good condition, on aged paper. All three in envelopes (lacking stamps), addressed by Clifton and with his seal in red wax. ONE. 4 October 1889. 4to, 12 pp. Begins: 'It seems a long time since we had a ramble on the Cuxton and Ralling hills from Cobham, and when I killed a viper; and I have been much amused at the apparent incredulity of a brother B.O.U. at the Dumpton Park rarities!

4to, 180 pp. In original 'Emberlin & Son' ledger, with red leather half-binding, black cloth, marbled endpapers. Text clear and complete. In fair condition, on aged paper, in worn binding. Minutes signed by G. H. Spray, B. W. Tucker, W. B. Alexander, J. B. E. Say, William G. Dyson, Alan Newton. Numerous programmes (with lists of officers) tipped-in, along with one set of rules and a poster with large engraving of bird (a smaller version of which features on the programmes), printed by the Holywell Press.

12mo, 11 pp. Stitched and unbound. First and last leaves loose, otherwise in fair condition, on lightly-aged paper with grubby title. The section of 'Eggs of the Farne Islands' consists of fifteen entries on pp.8-9, from '1. Eider or St. Cuthbert's Duck (Somateria mollissima)' to '15.

4to, 1 p. Bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged and worn paper. With 1 cm vertical closed tear at foot of each leaf. Addressed, with postmarks, on the reverse of the second leaf, which is docketed '31. July 1840. | Gurney & Co. that Mrs E. Lofty resides at Hethersett near Norwich -'. Reads 'Respected friends | We believe that the lady for whose address you enquire in yr favor of the 29th Inst resides at Hethersett near this city'. Gurney joined the family business at the age of seventeen.

Pp.p. xv, 155, concluding with 16-page publisher's catalogue, original green cloth gilt (motif of the bird on front cover), illustrated,some wear, corners bumped as well as the top and bottom of spine, sporadic use of pencil lines in margin, but an attractive book. Compliments of the publisher on title (blind stamp).

44 pages. Folio. Unbound. In poor condition: first and last leaf fraying, torn and separated. An important document: a landmark in the history of environmentalism. The committee members were the Hon. E. S. Montagu (Under Secretary of State for India), Lord Lucas (Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Agriculture), Frank Elliott of the Home Office, E. G. B. Meade-Waldo, W. R. Ogilvie-Grant, Hugh S. Gladstone and the appropriately-named W. Eagle Clarke.