Fauna Boreali-Americana; or, The Zoology of the Northern Parts of British America 4 Volume Set : Containing Descriptions of the Objects of Natural History Collected on the Late Northern Land Expeditio

Sir John Richardson (1787-1865), surgeon, naturalist and Arctic explorer, went on Sir John Franklin's first two Arctic expeditions as ship's doctor and naturalist, and made observations and collected a large number of plant and animal specimens from the Canadian Arctic.

On his return to England after the second expedition he began to write this four-volume work of natural history, first published between 1829 and 1837.

A volume is dedicated to each of the following classes: mammal (Volume 1); bird (Volume 2); fish (Volume 3); and insect (Volume 4) which are found in the Canadian Arctic.

This work is an interesting example of pre-Darwinian natural history, full of detailed descriptions of the appearance, anatomy and behaviour of the different species.