Les oiseaux de l’Indochine Francaise

Paris: Exposition coloniale Internationale, 1931. FIRST EDITION. Complete with index, addenda, errata, and 67 color plates by Grnvold. Original half burgundy calf over marbled boards, gilt lettering on spine; browning and foxing to preliminary and blank leaves, otherwise a very nice wide-margined copy. First edition of a standard work on the avifauna of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. The authors spent the winter months over many years in ornithological exploration in Southeast Asia. The results of their explorations were first published in the Revue de Ornithologie and The Ibis and later gathered in this elaborate four volume set.

Delacour (1890-1985) was an American ornithologist with French origins known for discovering and breeding some of the world’s rarest birds, including the imperial pheasant. He founded the French ornithological magazine L’Oiseau. Leaving France for the United States during World War II, he ultimately became director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History.

Jabouille (1875-1947), a civil servant, was chosen by Delacour as his companion because of his expertise in the birds of Indochina. Grnvold (1858-1940), a Danish naturalist and artist, worked at the London Natural History Museum, where he developed skills as a taxidermist and established his reputation as an ornithological illustrator and painter of birds’ eggs.