HARTING, James Edmund. British Animals Extinct within Historic Times with Some Account of British Wild White Cattle. London: Ballantyne Press for Trübner and Co., 1880.
8vo. Recently rebound in half green morocco, marbled boards, gilt lettering to spine; pp. [x], 258; wood-engraved illustrations after Joseph Wolf, Charles Whymper and others; previous owner's signature to ffep and blindstamp to title page, occasional marginal notes, very good.
First edition. Harting (1841-1928) was the editor of the Field from 1870 and the Zoologist from 1877. A prolific writer on numerous areas of natural history, he corresponded with Darwin between 1877 and 1881, noting that The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication does not mention that the gestation of the wild cat is twelve days longer than that of the domestic cat. In this contemporaneous work he devotes chapters to the bear, the beaver, the reindeer, the boar, and the wolf, closing with a special section on wild white cattle.
BM(NH) II, p. 790; Wood p. 378.
#2120613