Catalogue of the Columbæ, Or Pigeons


Book Description

Excerpt from Catalogue of the Columbae, or Pigeons: In the Collection of the British Museum The Collection of Pigeons in the British Musenm consists of 7359 specimens, referred by the Author to 415 species. Only about one tenth of the species known are unrepresented in the Collection; they belong chiefly to the Austro-Malayan and Polynesian Faunas; whilst of other species the series of specimens are almost complete, having been obtained from the donations of Mr. A. Hume, and especially of Messrs. Godman and Salvin, who were collecting specimens of Pigeons for many years with the view of preparing a completely illustrated Monograph of the Order. I have again the pleasure of acknowledging the conscientious attention which the Author has given to this work in all its details, and which renders it a worthy companion to the preceding volume of this Catalogue. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."










Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum: Columbæ, or pigeons, by T. Salvidori. 1893


Book Description

This enormous undertaking, which, according to one of the prefaces, professes to be a complete list of every bird known at the time of publication, kept growing even as it was being written. The Museum added eagerly to their already vast collections during the decades of publication, acquiring by gift the great collections of A.O. Hume on Asian birds, and those of Sclater and Salvin and Godwin on Neotropical birds, so that the size of the collection nearly tripled between 1874 and 1888. Sharpe originally intended to do all the work himself, but others were called in when this became clearly impossible. The plates are all of birds not previously illustrated. In the decades following its publication this catalogue was universally acclaimed as the most important work on systematic ornithology that has ever been published. (Zimmer, p. 96). And even after one hundred years it remains an essential reference for the serious ornithologist, as it underpins a great deal of modern bird classification. With 387 plates, most hand-coloured lithographs, some chromolithographs, by William Hart, J.G. Keulemans, Joseph and Peter Smit.