The Birds of Bempton Cliffs: A Concise Description of the different species of Wild Birds that frequent the Chalk Cliffs, with full details respecting the habits of The Guillemot

Description:

Second Edition. Very scarce. A footnote on the final page states, 'This pamphlet is founded on a paper, originally read to the Hull Scientific and Field Naturalists' Club, which was printed in the Club's Transactions, and subsequently reprinted.'

Edward Walter Wade (1864-1937) 'worked as a clerk for the family timber company in Hull and in his spare time visited Bempton Cliffs, where he climbed (routinely without a rope) to observe the seabirds and to collect eggs. He was an active member of the Hull Scientific and Field Naturalists' Club and became one of their Vice-Presidents and President. Between 1902 and 1920 he was a member of the British Ornithologists' Union. Wade's published comments on guillemots and their pyriform-shaped eggs, at Bempton, were unusually insightful, in part because his observations were made at close range (a consequence of his climbing ability), and partly because he thought carefully about what he saw. Wade was among the first to point out that the spinning-like-a-top explanation for the guillemot's pyriform egg shape was incorrect based on his own observations.' (Birkhead & Thompson, 2019, Archives of Natural History 46: 240-252.)

Mullens & Swann p. 605

Condition

Sm. 8vo (183x127mm), recent boards, printed title label to front cover. Lacks original wrappers and initial leaf of advertisements. A couple of light stains to frontispiece and title page.