4to. xiii, 624 pp., 35 text maps, 1 folding in rear-pocket, 53 text figures, 19 colour plates, 9 b/w plates, original buckram cloth, lightly rubbed at spine extremities, appendices, index, several ink signatures on front fly leaf (a present from a group dated Camargue 4-12 July 1959), otherwise copy clean & in very good condition, Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh, first edition, 1954.

Synopsis

One of the first accounts of the birds of the Peninsula, together with those of the Sinai, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Palestine.
Meinertzhagen was long associated with Britain’s political and military affairs in the Middle East from early in the twentieth century (history has proven subsequently that he has lied about his military exploits and may have murdered his first wife – never proven -) it was also shown that his ornithology is a highly personal one – (it’s believed that he committed ornithological fraud on a grand scale) – notably his account of the Lammergeier. But he was a man of considerable means and consequently all his books are beautiful productions, with Birds of Arabia probably the best.