Birds of America. by Pearson, T Gilbert (Thomas Gilbert), 1873-1943; [Louis Agassiz Fuentes, Rex I Brasher (1892-1969), Robert Bruce Horsfall (1868-1948), Henry Thurston; eds., Edward Forbush, William Finley, George Gladden, Herbert Job, L Nelson Nichols, J Ellis Burrou - 1923

New York : The University Society Inc. ; [Composition, presswork and binding, Albany, NY : J B Lyon Company], 1923., 1923. Fine. 3 volumes ; illustrated with black and white photographs, two-color plates, full-color plates featuring paintings by Louis Agassiz Fuentes, and full-color plates of bird eggs, based on drawings of Henry Thurston, as well as several black and white drawings and paintings by Rex I Brasher (1892-1969) and Robert Bruce Horsfall (1868-1948) ; Of these three artists, Horsfall probably had the strangest twist of fate, as he was directly responsible for the death of Clara Hoffmann, a fellow female art student at the Cincinnati Art Academy, who died from shock when he took her in a rowboat on a night in September of 1897 and, against her hysterical pleading, stripped off his clothing--he was wearing a bathing suit underneath--and took a swim. Th e girl never recovered and died two months later in November. At his own death, Horsfall had completed over 1,100 nature illustrations. ; 29 cm. ; OCLC: 1299821 ; LC: QL681; Dewey: 598.297 ; green cloth with gold lettering ; no dustjackets, as issue d ; Contents: Vol. 1: Order of diving birds -- Grebes, Loons, Auks, Murres and Puffins -- Order of long-winged swimmers -- Skuas and Jaegers, Gulls, Terns, Skimmers -- Order of tube-nosed swimmers -- Albatrosses, Fulmars, Shearwaters and Petrels -- Order of totipalmated swimmers -- Tropic-birds, Gannets, Darters, Cormorants, pelicans, Man-O'-War birds -- Order of lamellirostral swimmers -- Mergansers, Ducks, Geese, Swans -- Order of lamellirostral grallatores (Flamingoes) -- Order of Herons, S torks, Ibises, etc -- Spoonbills, Ibises and Storks, Heron Family -- Order of Marsh-dwellers -- Cranes and Courlans, Rails, Gallinules, and Coots -- Order of Shore Birds -- Phalaropes, Avocets and Stilts, Snipes, Sandpipers, etc, Plovers, Surf-birds and Turnstones, Oyster-catchers -- Vol. 2 -- Out-door bird study / Edward Howe Forbush -- Order of Gallinaceous birds -- Bob-whites and Quails, Grouse, Turkeys, Pheasants -- Order of Pigeons and DOves -- Order of birds of prey -- Vultures, Eagles, Hawks and Kites, Falcons, Caracaras, Ospreys, Owls -- Order of parrot-like birds -- Order of Cuckoos, etc -- Cuckoo family, Trogons, Kingfishers -- Order of Woodpeckers -- Order of Goatsuckers, Swifts, etc --Goatsuckers, Swifts, Hummingbirds -- Orde r of perching birds -- Tyrant Flycatchers, Larks, Crows and Jays, Icteridae -- Vol.3 -- Bird migration / Wells W Cooke -- Order of perching birds, continued -- Finches, Tanagers, Swallows, Waxwings and Silky Flycatchers, Shrikes, Vireos, Warblers, W agtails and Pipits, Dippers, Mimic Trhushes, Wrens, Nutchatches and Creepers, Titmice, Wren-tits, Kinglets and Gnatcatchers, Thrushes -- Color keys -- Glossary -- Bibliography -- Index. ; "In their arrangement most ornithologies follow the evolution ary plan of proceeding from the lowest to the highest forms which, in the case of the birds, means from the diving birds which are considered by scientists the lowest forms, to the thrushes which are ranked as the highest. This is the order in whic h the birds are arranged in the Check-list of the American Ornithologists' Union, and the one which has been followed in these pages...There has been presented in plain language a vast amount of scientifically accurate descriptive material, which, i n its original form, would be comprehensible for the lay reader only by the constant use of an unabridged dictionary." ; incorporates the latest reports and findings published in scientific bulletins and journals of the day ; photographers include T . Gilbert Pearson, Herbert K Job, Edward H Forbush, William L. Finley, H T Bohlman, C William Beebe, H T Middleton, Silas A Lottridge, A A Allen ; quotations from the orinithological publications of authors Jonathan Dwight Jr, Frank M Chapman, Flore nce Merriam Bailey, Mabel Osgood Wright, John Burroughs, Bradford Torrey, H E Parkhurst, William Leon Dawson, Olive Thorne Miller, Ralph Hoffman, Walter H Rich, Edgar A Fawcett, John Maclair Boarston, F Schuyler Matthews ; FINE