he Naturalist’s Library consists of a series of 40 small octavo volumes dealing with the natural history of 4 groups of animals: Birds, Fish, Mammals and Insects. There are 14 volumes in this Ornithology series.   Each of these small volumes consists of around 200 to 300 text pages and  30 or more hand coloured plates.  There is a frontispiece depicting, in a black and white engraving, a famous naturalist.  This is followed by a title page, with another engraving but of a scene from nature.  This engraving is usually handcoloured.  There is an essay on the life of the naturalist shown in the frontispiece.  

Several editions were produced during the middle of the 19th century.  Different publishers were involved in these editions and the numbering of volumes is not consistent.   The is the 36th volume of the first edition of complete library and volume XIII of the Ornithology series. 

This book has been rebound by Baytub binders  The front and back covers are light green cloth with dark green leather corners.  The spine is in the same dark green leather.  The spine is divided into 6 sections with the title ‘SunBirds ’, author ‘ Jardine Vol 2’ and date ‘1843’in gilt.  The are gilt decorations  in the other sections.     The size  is  10 1/2 by 17 cm. All the edges are gilt.  The front and end pastedowns are in green and red marbling. 

 The frontispiece of this Volume of the series is an engraving of the naturalist Willoughby.    There are  three title pages.  This title page states ‘The Naturalist’s Library  Ornithology Vol XIII ‘ and gives the publishers as  Edinburgh: WH Lizars,  London: Samuel Highley and Dublin: W Curry.  It has a coloured engraving of a pair of birds.    The second title is without the engraving, repeats the information given on the previous page and adds the Author’s name- William Jardine,  and the date 1843.   The third page states that this is:  The Natural History of the Nectariniadae or Sun-Birds by William Swainson illustrated with 32 coloured plates  with a portrait and memoir of Willoughby 

 There is then a Publisher’s advertisement followed by a table of contents.   This identifies the species described by popular name in English and gives the page number.  The Plate identifies the species by the taxonomic name and gives the number of the plate.   The memoir of Francis Willoughby is from pages 17 to 146.  The general nature of Sunbirds is described from pages 147 to 163.  The descriptions of individual species follows.  Each species is allocated about 3 to 4 pages of text.  These textual descriptions are continuous.  All of the full page illustrations are bound as a block at the end of the volume. with a full page illustration.  The artist is Stewart who made most of the illustrations for the Ornithology section.

The condition of this volume is fine.  It has been rebound by Bayntun of Bath, England, since it matches almost exactly the binding of another two volumes of Humming Birds.  It is treated as the second,companion, volume to the Flycatchers.  There are no marks, bumping, looseness of any kind.   There is very minor foxing in the blank front and end papers.    

 There are a number of inscriptions throughout the volume. These correct mistakes made in the printing and identification of plates and provide a consistent numeration of the plates.  They also refer the plates to text pages. The plates are all free from any marks stains and foxing, tears or creases.  The colouring is bright and clear. 

This a superb example of this very collectable series. They would enhance any collection of books on ornthology or natural history