Edinburgh, London, etc.: Adam & Charles Black, 1831-49. In five volumes. First edition. 8vo. With numerous in-text woodcut illustrations. Prospectus for the Birds of America bound into rear of first volume. Vols. I-III bound to style in three-quarter brown calf over period cloth-covered boards, black calf spine labels, stamped in gilt, rubbing to cloth; Vols. IV and V in original cloth-covered boards, original printed spine labels, rebacked with original spines laid down, wear to spines, boards unevenly faded; all edges trimmed; Vols. IV and V with book-plate of Geo. A. Zabriskie and Thomas Parkin on front paste-downs, scattered spotting to text of same volumes. Ayer 20; Ellis 96 & 100; Zimmer 20

First edition of the separately-issued text for the elephant folio of John James Audubon's Birds of America, complete with the rare Prospectus for the elephant folio edition.

As early as November 1826, Audubon had begun thinking about the text which should accompany his engraved illustrations of birds, and noted in his journal, "I shall publish the letterpress in a separate book, at the same time with the illustrations and shall accompany the descriptions of the birds with many anecdotes and accounts of localities connected with the birds themselves..." (M.R. Audubon, Audubon and His Journals, 1897, Vol. I, p. 163). He made the decision to publish the letterpress separately (and give it at no cost to the subscribers of the plate volumes) because, according to British copyright law, had the letterpress accompanied the engravings, Audubon would have been obliged to deposit a copy of the work in each of the nine copyright libraries in the United Kingdom. This would have placed a strain on the economics of the production of the book.

Work on the text began towards the end of 1830, just as Havell was nearing the completion of his first 100 engravings, and Audubon finished the final and fifth volume nearly nine years later.