MILLER, John Frederick (1715-1790) and George SHAW (1751-1813). Cimelia physica: Figures of rare and curious quadrupeds, birds, &c. London: by T. Bensley for Benjamin and John White and John Sewell, 1796.

First edition with the text by George Shaw, second edition overall. The quadrupeds represented—ranging in size from the moose to the jerboa—are outnumbered by the “rare and curious” birds, usually shown next to a carefully chosen plant. Among the parrots, loxia and oriols is Psittacus Melanocephalus said by Shaw “to be of a peculiarly stubborn and obstinate nature; tamed with great difficulty and very quarrelsome.” Other rarities include the flightless Cassowary “totally destitute of wings;” Columba coronata “the largest and most magnificent” of the doves; the Antarctic Falcon; Vultur Secretarius or the Secretary Bird with “its remrkable crest;” Alcedo formosa a South American kingfisher “never before described;” the violet-black Hoopoe “one of the rarest of its genus as well as one of the most beautiful;” and an Indian toucan. Fine Bird Books p. 94; Nissen IVB 638; Stafleu and Cowan 6033; Wood p. 465; Zimmer p. 585.

Folio (537 x 367 mm). With 60 hand-colored etched plates by and after Miller, including 41 plates of birds, many printed in sepia (toning, finger-soiling, and scattered spots, long closed tear to pl.19 touching foreground, title-page creased, text pp. 73-78 dampstained, without the Linnean table sometimes found in this edition). 19th century cloth rebacked with modern calf (worn and faded, pencil marks to endpapers).