Two Lithograph Birds of New Zealand by Sir Walter Lawry Buller 1888

Sir Walter Lawry Buller, New Zealander (1838-1906)

Sir Walter Lawry Buller was a New Zealand lawyer and naturalist who was a dominant figure in New Zealand ornithology. His book, a History of the Birds of New Zealand, first published in 1873, was published as an enlarged version in 1888 and became a New Zealand classic. It was one of the most comprehensive studies of New Zealand birdlife to date and describes many species that were threatened or risked extinction by European settlement on the islands.

The birds of New Zealand are remarkable in that they evolved in a part of the world with no large predators and thus display a spectacular range of diversity, occupying niches that were taken up by other animals in the rest of the world. This diversity allowed for the evolution of megafauna such as the now-extinct moa and several species of flightless birds including the critically endangered kakapo and the bird which has become a symbol of the country: the kiwi.

Buller intended this work to contain images of all the birds of the islands and states in his preface that the volume contains 145 species, over 20 more than previous books on New Zealand ornithology. His hope was that the book would serve as a record to the diversity of birdlife in New Zealand and highlight the effects of colonization since both the arrival of Māori, the first people to settle the islands, and the intensive development of the land since the arrival of European settlers in the late eighteenth century, in the hope that the habitats of these birds could be conserved. (Referenced from the Royal Collection Trust.) 

These two color lithographs depict the Chaetoptila Angustipluma and the Antipodes Island Parrakeet in Cyanorhamphus Unicolor. 

Condition: Good condition. Not inspected outside of frame.

Overall size of each: 24" H x 21" W x 2" D