A HISTORY OF THE BIRDS OF HERTFORDSHIRE [Inscribed by the Author to Eric Hosking]

London: Barrie and Rockliff, 1959. Book. Fine. Hardcover. Inscribed By the Author. First Edition. 8vo. From the library of Eric Hosking, photographer. Forward by Peter Scott. pp. xvi, 245; frontispiece plate; b/w photographic plates. Dust jacket near fine, a little spotting an toning, not price-clipped, now protected in a removable archival sleeve. Hardback binding fine. Contents clean and tight, inscribed and signed "Bryan Sage for Eric Hosking, the best of bird photographers", otherwise unmarked. A near 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.].