Search Results: Natural History from Walkabout Books

London: George allen & Unwin, 1924. Hardcover. Near fine. Third edition (first published 1910), updated with additional color plates. 292 pp, in original pictorial cloth, with index, more than 40 color plates, and many b/w illustrations. A very near fine copy, with bookplate of Gerald L. Rathbone on the front pastedown. No dust jacket.

Philadelphia: B. Graves, 1806. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. 8vo, pp v, [1],648 + index, with one folding table, in original full calf with red spine label. Leather scuffed, corner torn from table, with small loss of text, otherwise sound and clean. Bookplate of Benjamin Lincoln Lear (1792-1832, attorney and godson of George Washington) on front pastedown, three manuscript notes in Lear's hand, and several newspaper clippings laid in -- all relating to gardening. "M'Mahon came from Ireland in 1796 and began to collect and export seeds of native American plants in 1800. His catalog of 1804 listed seeds of about 1,000 species. In 1806, he published his book The American Gardener's Calendar, that was for 50 years the standard gardening authority in America. There were eleven editions of his book by the last edition published in 1857. A general catalog of garden plants was published at the end of the book. He knew Jefferson and his store became the meeting place of botanists and horticulturists.… Read More

London: William Pickering, 1834. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. Two volumes in contemporary full leather, with matching gift inscriptions dated 1836 on the front free endpaper of each volume. A very good, clean set with some scuffing and bumping to the boards. " Roget (of thesaurus fame), describes "in a manner designed to appeal to a wide audience the variety and complexity of the mechanical processes of the plant and animal kingdoms. Particular attention is given to those areas where animal life reveals something about human life and the man-made world, emphasising the magnificence of the all-encompassing creative process behind it. The plant kingdom is examined with the goal of establishing the mechanics behind the beauty of plant life as created by God" (Cambridge University Press edition). Due to size, shipping cost will be more than standard for priority or international orders.

Wasburn, ND, 1906. Hardcover. Very Good. Published by the author. Second edition, revised and enlarged. pp 218 pp + [4]ads. Re-bound in modern blue cloth. Tight and unmarked, with minimal wear, but some mild age-toning to the pages. Taylor was among the first white men to take up residence in North Dakota, moving to the territory in the 1860s. After a successful career as a trapper, Taylor's fondness for his prey caused him to renounce his profession and seek protection for beavers. This book includes much information on the beaver habits and habitats, as well as accounts of hunting and trapping in Iowa, Nebraska, and North Dakota, and the history of wildlife protection and game laws. Graff 4086; Howes T66.

London: Country Life Ltd, 1936. First Edition. Hardcover. Good+. 146 pp. Moderate general wear to boards (scuffing, minor stains), internally clean and sound. No dust jacket. Beautifully illustrated, with color frontispiece and line drawings in the text.

Oregon Field Ornithologists, 1992. Soft cover. Good. Second edition, revised. 67 pp, with illustrations (line drawings) and maps. Some highlighting in the text. Minor cover wear, tight binding.

Hollywood, CA: Cooper Ornithological Club, 1917. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. 127 pp, with one map, index. Text and original wrappers bound into an attractive later binding of three-quarter red leather and red cloth, with blue marbled endpapers. Bookplate of Henry E. Childs, Jr. on front pastedown, otherwise unmarked, clean and sound, with some scuffing to the leather.

New York: Charles Scribner's sons, 1908. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. pp xix, 366, + 4 (ads). Extensively illustrated with photographs (some colored), 2 maps. Red cloth w/gilt lettering, top edge gilt, mounted illustration of bighorn sheep. Most of rear free endpaper lacking, lower corners bumped, otherwise sound and clean. Account of a botanical/zoological expedition and hunting trip to little-known parts of southern Arizona and the Pinacate region of northern Mexico. Described by Joseph Wilder, editor of the Journal of the Southwest, as "a great evocation of a real goddamned expedition, quite unlike the pantywaist excursions nowadays indulged in, all freeze-dried, lightweight, and sensitive to the land. This is manly stuff, natural history the way it used to be done: with a wagon train of provisions, stalking and killing the great desert beasts of the Papagueria, all for science.

St. Petersburg, FL: Walter F. Webb. Softcover. Very Good. Fourth edition. 157 pp, with illustrations, indices, in original wrappers. Handling wear to wrappers; contents clean and sound, but for a few penciled annotations. A nicely illustrated sales catalog of sea shells, divided into three sections: East Coast Marine Shells, West Coast Marine Shells, and Foreign Marine Shells. Undated, but c. late 1940s.

Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co, 1882. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. 8vo, pp xii, 228 + ads, with illustrations, folding maps of Mammoth and Wyandot. Original embossed brown cloth with gilt lettering. Corners bumped, minor soiling on back cover, original owner's inscription ("D.W. Garrigues, Bot. 12/4/85 at Luray Caverns, Luray VA") on front pastedown, map of Mammoth Cave has a closed tear, but still about very good overall. Although this book focuses on the cave systems listed in the title (with more content on Mammoth Cave than any other), there are also chapters on the structure, varieties, and contents of American cave systems in general, a history of the uses of caves as dwelling and places of worship and burial, and shorter descriptions of Howe's Cave (NY), Judge's Cave (CT), Simsbury Caverns (CT), Pickett's Cave (CO), and others.

[Columbia, South Carolina]: Southern Carolina Environmental Coalition, 1975. Softcover. Near fine. 8.5 x 11 inches, 144 pp, in original wrappers. Ownership signature on first page, "Congaree Swamp" handwritten on the spine, else fine. A collection of articles compiled to explain the importance of South Carolina's old-growth, bottomland forest and to advocate for its protection. The first section of the book is composed of previously published articles that were among the first to identify the importance of this complex forest ecosystem. The second section contains articles published here for the first time. Prominent scientists and environmental leaders describe the history of human activities in the forest, the ecology of Congaree Swamp, and the struggle to protect it. Congaree was designated a National Monument the year after this book was published and became a National Park in 2003.

Hollywood, CA: Cooper Ornithological Club, 1912. Softcover. Very Good. 122 pp, with index, in original wrappers. Handling wear, some chipping to wrappers; text clean. A meticulously researched list of known and hypothetical list of birds of the Pacific Slope of Southern California.

New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1880. First American Edition. Hardcover. Very good. Title on spine: The Life of Erasmus Darwin. 8vo, pp. iv, 216 + publisher's ads, bound in publisher's brown cloth decorated in gilt and black. Previous owner's signature on front flyleaf; paper over front hinge is cracked and hinge is slightly wobbly, otherwise clean and sound, with slight wear to extremities. A scientific biography of Erasmus Darwin by Krause, a German biologist, with a prefatory note by Darwin's grandson, Charles. Freeman #1320.

Albany, NY: C. Van Benthuysen, Printer to the Legislature, 1856. Hardcover. Very good. 336 pp, with 4 plates, index. Original cloth boards show moderate general wear; endpapers foxed, ownership markings on flyleaf, text clean and binding sound. Fitch was a natural historian and entomologist whose extensive studies helped scientists to solve some of the problems of crop damage caused by insects. He notes that this report gives special attention to insects that "are injurious to fruit trees" and that he also presents "specimens of the several insects herein described, and of the vegetation as depredated upon by them.

New York: Harper and Brothers, 1876. First American Edition. Hardcover. Good. Two volumes in original brown cloth decorated in gilt, pp xxi, 503; viii, 607, with 2 pp. ads at rear of the second volume; 7 color lithographs maps (1 folding, 2 double-page) and 20 plates. Ex-library, with no external markings beyond slight evidence of labels removed from lower spines, but discard markings on half title and title pages. Moderate rubbing and general wear to boards on both volumes, Volume I with creasing to spine cloth and splitting of cloth along the front joint. Otherwise sound, internally clean, and complete. "Considered the nineteenth century's leading expert on the geographical distribution of animals, Wallace carried out extensive fieldwork in areas as diverse as North and South America, Africa, China, India and Australia to document the habitats, breeding, migration and feeding behaviour of thousands of species around the world, and the influence of environmental conditions on their survival....… Read More

London: Macmillan, 1881. Hardcover. Near fine. 5" x 7", xi, 245 pp, with 12 color plates and additional illustrations in the text. Attractive full-red leather prize binding, with spine in six compartments tooled in gilt, marbled edges and endpapers. Inscribed "J. Royden, Classics, Class I, Yarlet, Christmas 1884" on the front flyleaf, and with the bookplate of Thomas Royden on the front pastedown. Mild scuffing and wear to extremities, occasional minor foxing. Clean and sound.

London and Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1961. First Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine/Near Fine. First English edition. Translated from the French by James Hogarth. 187 pp, extensively illustrated with photographs, some color. Previous owner's name on front pastedown, else a fine copy in a clean, slightly rubbed dust jacket with a few ink marks on the rear panel. Account of an expedition in search of the elusive shell of the golden cowrie--the larges of the world's 250 known cowrie species--with much on the people and culture of the island's native villages.

Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1914. Hardcover. Very good. Part 1: 408 pp, indexed; Part 2: 110 plates, each with brief explanatory text. Original green cloth stamped in gilt. Both volumes have some faint evidence of liquid splash on boards, but still present well and are in excellent condition internally. Some pages unopened in text volume. During the summer of 1899, the party cruised the waters off southeastern and southern Alaska and the eastern Aleutians, making numerous stops for scientific investigation and collecting. The starfishes collected during the expedition were all sent to Verrill, a highly accomplished invertebrate zoologist.

Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1910. Hardcover. Very good. Volume VIII: pp ix, 238, indexed, with color frontispiece and 16 other plates, as well as figures and line drawings in the text; Volume IX: pp ix, 284, indexed, with photogravure frontispiece and three plates. Original green cloth stamped in gilt. Volume XIII has a small area of dampstaining on the back cover (not affecting the interior) and light rubbing to the spine ends; Volume IX has some minor discoloration to the front board. Both volumes internally very clean and sound. Organized and financed by railroad magnate Edward H. Harriman, the Harriman Alaska Expedition included 25 scientists and naturalists, as well as sizeable team of photographers and artists, among them Edward Curtis, Frank Dellenbaugh, and Louis Agassiz Fuertes. During the summer of 1899, the party cruised the waters off southeastern and southern Alaska and the eastern Aleutians, making numerous stops for scientific investigation and collecting. Trevor Kincaid, the… Read More

Glocester: R. Raikes for T. Jefferys, 1764. First Edition. Hardcover. Near fine. Quarto, pp. [8], 280, [8], with 7 engraved maps and plates (4 folding). Contemporary calf boards with new, complementary calf spine in six compartments. Some edgewear to boards; minor foxing to endpapers; text and plates exceptionally clean and bright. Bookplate of Sir Joseph Copley on front pastedown. An abridged translation of the Russian edition of 1755, which offered "The first reliable descriptions of Kamchatka, based on the observations of the author and his companions during the Russian expedition to the far north, 1734-43, a part of Bering's Great Northern Expedition" (Arctic Bib. 9264, 9265). It describes the customs, morals, religion, and languages of the inhabitants of the Kamchatkan peninsula. In addition, the the author had access to the notes made by pioneering German botanist George Steller during his travels to North America with Bering's expedition, and the second part of the narrative includes much on… Read More