162 - [INDOCHINA - ORNITHOLOGY]. DELACOUR, Jean, and JABOUILLE, Pierre. The Birds of French Indochina.

[INDOCHINA - ORNITHOLOGY]. DELACOUR, Jean, and JABOUILLE, Pierre. The Birds of French Indochina. First edition of the first monograph on the avifauna of French Indochina, illustrated with 67 finely lithographed color plates based on drawings by the Danish naturalist painter Henrik Grönvold. Paris, International Colonial Exhibition, 1931. 4 volumes, in-4 format (195x285 mm), paperback, taupe covers printed in black. LVI–279 pp., 1 f. (errata) and LXVI pp. (index); 339 pp., 1 f. and LXI pp.; 348 pp., 1 f. and LXXIII pp.; 296 pp. and LXVI. 67 color lithographic plates (numbered I through LXVII), all signed on the plate and captioned, 1 schematic drawing of a bird, and 2 black-and-white maps. Spines slightly sun-faded and wrinkled, slight wear to the covers (frayed on volume IV), some fragile seams. First edition of the first ornithological monograph on French Indochina (the present-day region of Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam), in which several species are described for the first time. It is illustrated with 67 plates, first impressions, based on drawings by the Danish naturalist painter Henrik Grönvold (1858–1940), finely lithographed and printed in London by John Bale, Sons & Danielsson. The volumes are printed on Navarre alfa mousse watermarked paper. Published with financial support from the General Government of Indochina for the International Colonial Exhibition, this study is the result of a series of expeditions led by Pierre Jabouille (1875–1947), former governor of Indochina, accompanied by the Franco-American ornithologist Jean Delacour (1890–1985), during which they collected more than 30,000 bird specimens of exceptional zoological value, considerably enriching the collections of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris and the British Museum. A beautiful set with perfectly preserved plates.