[DODO] BLAINVILLE, HENRI MARIE DUCROTAY DE. Nouvelles Annales du Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle, ou recueil des mémoires... tome quatrième. Memoire sur le Dodo, autrement Dronte.
Paris: Roret, 1835. Recent dark brown gilt lettered calf spine, marbled paper boards. 10 1/4 x 8 inches (26 x 20.5 cm); [2], 36 pp., four lithographed plates, one colored and two folded. Light edgewear to binding, uneven foxing throughout but mostly to the first few leaves, one plate lightly toned, Bodleian Library collections stamp and cancel on title-page.

De Blainville's article on the Dodo, the first chapter in the fourth volume of the scientific journal Nouvelles Annales du Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle, deals with two separate topics regarding the long extinct bird. Firstly, he attempts to classify the Dodo into a larger family after the Linnean system, arguing that the Dodo was a flightless relative of the vulture - a novel but ultimately incorrect hypothesis. Secondly, Blainville argues that the Dodo was rendered extinct through humankind's thoughtless greed in a place where the birds' numbers were already severely limited. Blainville's studies were largely based on his access to certain remarkably well-preserved specimens held in English collections: a head from the Ashmolean in Oxford and a foot held at the British Museum. A curator at the Ashmolean, professor William Buckland, had recently sent Blainville a plaster cast of their Dodo head, reproduced here in a colored plate showing what they believed the bird looked like when alive. Rare: no copies of either the journal or this chapter on its own have appeared at auction as per RBH and ABPC, and no copies are available in the trade (as of 5/16/2022).

C The Collection of Jay I. Kislak sold to benefit the Kislak Family Foundation

Any condition statement is given as a courtesy to a client, is an opinion and should not be treated as a statement of fact and Doyle New York shall have no responsibility for any error or omission. Please contact the specialist department to request further information or additional images that may be available.