bird

The Illustrated Book of Canaries and Cage-Birds

This is a comprehensive work on numerous types of birds, many not normally considered pets or cage-birds. Some also consider it a classic work on canaries. Each author contributed chapters in one of three sections: Blakston wrote about canaries; Swaysland, in his role as an “authority” on the subject, contributed the section on British cage-birds; and Wiener wrote the section on foreign birds. Blakston’s chapters on canaries include more detailed information on breeding, hatching and rearing, exhibiting, and diseases than the other two authors’ sections.

Synopsis of the Accipitres (Diurnal Birds of Prey)

Harry Kirke Swann (1871- 1926) was an ornithologist, author, bibliophile, book dealer, and publisher. Since 1921 he was the de facto owner of Wheldon and Wesley, the publishing and antiquarian book firm that attained a legendary status among natural-history book collectors (and served as the Smithsonian's European book agent from the 1860s until about 1960). Swann originally published his Synopsis of the Accipitres in four octavo parts, without plates (London: Wheldon and Wesley, 1919-20); a second edition (1921-22), revised and corrected, was again in octavo and without plates.

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