The Birds of Burma by Bertram E Smythies

The Birds of Burma by Bertram E Smythies. B.A., M.B.O.U., Colonial Forest Service, late Burma Forest Service. 

31 Colour Plated

First Published in 1940 

Second (Revised) Edition 1953 by Oliver and Boyd Edinburgh. 

No Dust Jack. Cover in excellent condition.  Burgundy leather.  Some markings in the leather.  An inscription on the 1st page to the original owner as a gift when leaving the service of Durban Port Goods in 1956.  Signed by his colleagues.

"The first edition of this book (1000 copies) was printed in Rangoon in 1940 by the American Baptist Mission Press and sold out by the end of 1941; it was intended to be a concise guide to the birds of Burma, primarily for the use of field naturalists, to encourage the study of natural history in general and of birds in particular; the welcome it received is a tribute to the high standard attained by the Mission Press, ..."

"Bearing in mid the fact that there is no museum in Burma whence skins can be borrowed, the difficulty of assembling models for each of the 290 birds illustrated in this book can be appreciated; some birds were painted from live examples in the Rangoon Zoo, chiefly waders and game birds; a few were copied from paintings in other books; but the majority had to be collected in the fields and the forests and the marshes, by those responsible for the book, in their spare time."

Taken from the Preface to the Second Edition by B E Smythies.

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