BIRDS OF PREY - Hamlyn All-Colour Paperbacks

London: Hamlyn, 1969. Book. Illus. by Ken Lilly. Very Good. Paperback. Inscribed By the Authors. First Edition. 8vo. Inscribed to Eric Hosking by the authors on the reverse of the front cover. 159 pages, colour plates. Covers a little toned, very good. Contents clean and tight, unmarked. A fine copy. [ Eric Hosking, OBE, Hon FRPS, FBIPP (1909-1991) was widely acknowledged as one of the world's most eminent natural history photographers, "Perhaps the most famous bird photographer ever to have lived" (Gemma Padley). He was pioneering and developed new techniques, especially the use of flash photography and automatic shutter release technology, which enabled him to photograph birds at night and freeze birds in flight for the first time. Famously, when just 28 he lost an eye to a tawny owl while climbing up to a hide in rural Wales, the event which inspired the ingeneous title of his autobiography "An Eye for a Bird", 1970. Over his exceptionally long career he photographed over 1,800 species, and his pictures have appeared in some 1,000 books, including the popular New Naturalist series, of which he was photographic editor. Hosking was not only a photographer of birds but also a highly knowledgeable ornithologist.].