"EVOCATIVE SKETCHES OF TIGER, GAUR, BISON, LEOPARD, SPOTTED DEER, AND THE LIKE"

STERNDALE, Robert Armitage. Denizens of the Jungles: A Series of Sketches of Wild Animals, Illustrating Their Forms and Natural Attitudes. Calcutta: Thacker, Spink & Co., 1886. Oblong folio (18-1/2 by 13-1/2 inches), original green cloth. $2200.

Expanded second edition of Sterndale's "quite scarce" collection of sketches, with 12 folio lithographs of the wild animals of India in their natural habitats, including "evocative sketches" of tiger, elephant, leopard, gaur, entellus monkeys (langur), wild boar, rhinoceros, sambar deer, and Marco Polo sheep, among others.

"Sterndale notes that he wished to reproduce a series of rough pencil sketches in the hope of 'inducing more of my brother Naturalists and Sportsmen to preserve pictorial records of the animals they come across.' He includes evocative sketches of tiger, gaur, bison, leopard, spotted deer, and the like with accompanying text including sporting notes. Quite scarce in either edition" (Czech). First published in 1881 with 11 plates; this edition is "a bit larger in size," according to Czech, and adds a plate of Marco Polo sheep with a leaf of accompanying text. With publisher's three-page advertising catalogue at rear. Czech, Asian Big Game Hunting Books, 201. Without blank front free endpaper.

Text and plates clean and fine, vertical crease to half title. Light expert restoration to original cloth. A very good copy of this scarce title.