Early identification guide - in three volumes - expected to fetch up to £800 at auction next month

                                  

This study  of an Avocet - in slightly exaggerated pose - is one of the illustrations included in a very early identification guide: George Graves's three-volume British Ornithology: Being The History with a Coloured Representation of Every Known Species of British Birds. At that time, the tally  was a modest 144.  The three books are expected to fetch between £500 and £800 when they go under the hammer as a single Lot  at the Dominic Winter auction at Cirencester in Gloucestershire on September 2.