Baker, E. C. Stuart
The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma. Birds.
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Seller ID: 1675 London: Taylor and Francis, 1922- 1930. Second edition, edited in part by Sir Arthur E. Shipley and published under the authority of the Secretary of State for India in Council, in eight volumes (pp. xxiii, 479, index; xxiii, 561, index; xx, 489, index, map; xxiv, 471, index; xxiii, 469, index; xxxv, bibliography, 499, index; viii, 484, synonymy; iv, 485- 801, corrections and additions, index). Large octavo (23 cm) in maroon pebbled cloth, gilt titles and decorations, decoration in blind; two colour frontispieces, 37 plates on card (thirty-three in full colour), several hundred b & w illustrations in text. Complete in eight volumes (or, if you like, seven-- with the seventh bound as two but continuously paginated). Unopened, a few slight rubs and abrasions to the peripheries. Birds was itself part of the general series Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma which began publication in the early 1880's at the urging of Darwin and Hooker, among others. The first edition of Birds under the editorship of W. T. Blanford appeared 1889- 1898. E. C. Stuart Baker, O.B.E (1864- 1925) is chiefly responsible for the much expanded and comprehensive second edition. One can do no better than to quote in part Wikipedia's biographical sketch of Baker's career who, at nineteen, entered the Indian Police Service: 'He spent most of his career... in the Assam Police, rising to the rank of Inspector- General commanding the force.... In 1911 he returned to England and took up the appointment of Chief Police Officer for the Port of London ... until his retirement in 1925. After retirement he became Mayor of Croydon.... He was an excellent tennis player and an enthusiastic big game hunter. He lost his left arm to a panther [in Assam], was tossed by a gaur and trampled by an Indian rhinoceros during various hunting expeditions.... During his spare time he studied and collected the birds of India.... He made a comprehensive collection of nearly 50, 000 Indian birds' eggs, part of which he donated to the Natural History Museum.... He also served on government advisory committees on the protection of birds and was from 1913 to 1936 honorary secretary and treasurer of the British Ornithologists' Union.' Baker published five other books and many shorter studies on Indian ornithology and natural history generally. The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma. Birds, although much supplemented, is the standard reference on the subject. Unopened (You will need a paper-knife), a near fine copy. Price: $600.00    
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