[NATURAL HISTORY-ORNITHOLOGY, Rex Brasher, Birds and Trees of N. America, 4 vols., folio. Published by Rowman & Littlefield, New York,1961/62. E400/600 Note: Originally published in 1930 in 12 hand- colored volumes of only 500 signed sets. At the time the most comprehensive compilation of American Birds undertaken since Audubon. Rex Brasher was born in Brooklyn, New York and died in Baylordsville, Connecticut, aged 91. He devoted his life to ornithology and painting.The twelve volumes that were published in 1930 were the culmination ofnearly forty years of exhaustive research and study. The illustrationsin "Birds and Trees of America" represent the realization of Rex Brasher's life ambition: to record and paint all the known birds of North America. Having accomplished this task, he set out in 1926 to find a publisher for his material, but was unsuccessful. Undaunted, hefinally decided to publish the work himself, initially planning some five-hundred sets of twelve volumes each. This idea was eventually abandoned and after three years of coloring the illustrations by his own hand, one hundred sets were completed. Dr. T. Gilbert Pearson, thelate president of the Audubon Society, said of Rex Brasher. "Brasher'sbird paintings are the most beautiful things I have ever seen. When you have seen a Brasher bird you have seen the bird itself." The 875 original paintings are now owned by the State of Connecticut and are on display at The Harkness Memorial Museum, Waterford, Connecticut. For an excellent biography of Rex Brasher see Rex Brasher, Painter of Birds by his nephew Milton Brasher, also published by Rowman & Lifflefield, 1961.