ELLIOT, DANIEL GIRAUD. 1835-1915.
A Monograph of the Felidae or Family of the Cats. [London]: Published for the Subscribers by the author, [1878]–1883.
Folio (598 x 480 mm). 43 hand-colored plates. Contemporary green half morocco and marbled boards, protected by a contemporary cloth sleeve, some light wear to spine ends, corners and extremities, front hinge cracked, cords firm, the sleeve with splitting and dust soiling, a few text leaves and 3 plates with short marginal tears and minor dampstaining, a few leaves becoming loose at end.
Provenance: Edward James Norris (1851-1927), President of the Educational Publishing Company, presented to him by the country of France, 29 September 1889, as an honorary 'Medaille d'Or' accompanied by a diploma granted to 'A Popular éducator, Massachusetts' (available as photocopy).

FIRST EDITION OF THE DEFINITIVE WORK ON THE FAMILY OF CATS, in which Elliot describes and illustrates all the species of cats then known. 'Among the Families which constitute the Class Mammalia no more attractive one can be found than that of Felidae, as its members possess in the highest degree a beauty, both of form and coloring, most gratifying to the eye, and are also endowed with physical strength and weapons of offence not surpassed by any known creature now living upon the earth. The Family comprises not only the largest and most ferocious of the beasts of prey, but in which Elliot describes and illustrates all the species of cats then known also the graceful little animal that delights to make its home within man's abode' (Introduction). Wolf worked from specimens provided by Elliot, who visited all the great museums and zoological societies on both sides of the Atlantic. See Nissen ZBI 1279; see Wood p 332.