GOULD, JOHN AND RICHTER, HENRY CONSTANTINE.

Limosa Rufa, Temm. [Bar-tailed Godwit].

[London]. Walter, [ 1873]. Stock ID #174382

Fine hand coloured lithograph heightened with gum arabic, 38.6 x 55.8cm discolouration to the top edge, the face of the plate clean and unmarked, small stitch holes to the lower margin. A very good example.

Fine plate (no. 51) from the fourth volume of John Gould's "The Birds of Great Britain".

In the accompanying text to the plate Gould notes "...how widely does this bird range! and how distant does it wander from its breeding-place! Young birds generally wander further from their birth-place than adults; and hence it probably is that we never see an Australian example in the red dress, which may not be acquired until the bird is on its return to the place in which it was bred...[it] has two distinct lines of migration — a western one through Europe to Africa, and an eastern from China, through the Philippines, and across the line to Australia, — the great peninsula of India, and probably Burmah, forming a kind of neutral ground wherein it is seldom seen — so rarely, indeed, that Mr. Jerdon does not include it in his ‘Birds of India'... The Plate represents the male in his spring dress, and the female in winter, of the size of life."

When referring to this item please quote stockid 174382.

Price: $650.00 AU

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