伦敦, 威尔·加德纳, 罗宾逊, 帕特诺斯特街, 1802-1806.
2本书装订成4卷大开本。362幅插图反印并手工上色。几处锈斑和污点。红色长纹羊皮精装，书板角落饰有叶状金色花纹，书脊饰有丰富花纹，内侧有希腊式金色滚边，书边镀金。装订上有一些划痕和修复。时代统一装订。
450 x 280 mm.
非常罕见的这本壮丽的鸟类学著作，这是25本大开本纸张印刷和背印的其中之一。精美鸟类书籍，第74页；尼森IVB 286和288；齐默尔第192-203页。
精美的插图由362幅全页版画组成，展示了各种鸟类。标有水印J. Whatman 1794和Ruse & Turner 1801-05, 所有版画均在当时手工精细上色，其细腻程度超越1743-51年原版。
为了像原始水彩画一样，它们被背印，这是一种技术性要求很高的方法，可以产生无压痕的细腻印刷品：印版从原始版样上新鲜印刷后立即在印刷机上用第二张纸复印。得到的版画与原始图像一致。这种版画制作方法代价高昂且费时；这解释了这种类型样本的稀有性。
« George Edwards (1694-1773) was born at Stratford, Essex, and received his early education at a public school at Leytonstone, later being apprenticed to a tradesman in … London. Having access to a large library of scientific books Edwards studied these assiduously and, having made up his mind not to enter business, decided to travel abroad. Between 1716 and 1733 he visited many foreign countries but in December of the latter year settled down in London and, through the influence of Sir Hans Sloane, was chosen Librarian to the Royal College of Physicians… Almost immediately after he was appointed … Edwards commenced the preparation of a series of coloured drawings of animals and birds, used later to illustrate [the present work]; for these he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Society and subsequently elected a fellow” (Lisney, p. 127).
「在其发行日期，『自然史』和『拾遗』是所有鸟类学书籍中最重要之一，无论在作为精美鸟类书籍以及鸟类学作品中。它在每个列表中仍然名列前茅」（精美鸟类书籍）。
珍贵的样本，为此壮丽作品中25份大开本纸张印刷和背印的其中之一，丰富插图内容包括当时上色的鸟类版画。
来源：藏书票J. Griffith Dearden.