The Snakes of Australia; An Illustrated and Descriptive Catalogue of all the Known Species.

This is a rare or used book from the Berkelouw Rare Books Department.

Sydney: Thomas Richards 1869. Small 4to. Bound in London by Sangorski & Sutcliffe in full tan crushed oasis with gilt title along spine. Top edge gilt. (xxvi 100pp.). A variant complete copy with the 12 full-page litho plates by Helena Forde and Harriet Scott 4 are hand-coloured 1 is partly hand-coloured and 7 are black/white as issued; whilst the text has been copiously corrected in contemp. ms. Fine. Ferguson 11247. NOTE: The first Australian reptile book written by 'the father of Australian Herpetology'. Only a few copies with coloured plates by the above artists were issued. The book is considered one of the most important of all nineteenth-century natural history publications.