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Gunther, Albert C L G.
The Gigantic Land Tortoises (Living and Extinct) in the Collection of the British Museum.
Publisher: Taylor and Francis by Order of the Trustees, London;
Date of Publication: 1877
Stock Code: 6222
FIRST EDITION. Quarto, pp iv, [2], 96. 55 lithographic plates to rear as called for, numbered I to LIV including XXXIb, of which 6 fold-out and 1 double page. Sympathetically re-backed, with gilt titles to upper board, and triple border in blind. Primrose yellow endpapers. Boards bruised to edges with minor wear at corners and a little surface soiling. Ex-South Shields Public Reference Library copy with their printed Presentation Plate to front pastedown from the British Museum and their small unobtrusive stamps throughout (each plate stamped to reverse). Endpapers lightly soiled; very light foxing to title page and a little faint soiling to plate margins. Overall a Very Good copy. Rare monograph on the giant tortoises of the Galapagos Islands, Mauritius and elsewhere, including an interesting selection of quotations from earlier accounts to the Introduction. Gunther (1830-1914) was a German-born British zoologist and prolific reptile taxonomist, whose name lives on in the scientific names of many species of reptiles; he was a Fellow of the Royal Society and President of the Linnaean Society. Sold