Walter Rothschild’s Extinct Birds (first published in 1907) is one of the most famous early attempts to document systematically the birds lost in relatively recent human history.
- **Full Title:** *Extinct Birds: An Attempt to Unite in One Volume a Short Account of Those Birds Which Have Become Extinct in Historical Times — That is, Within the Last Six or Seven Hundred Years — to Which Are Added a Few Which Still Exist, But Are on the Verge of Extinction*. - **Publication Date:** 1907. - **Scope:** Focuses on species extinct since around the year 1300 CE, as well as those then critically endangered.
# Content Style - Miro Traversi (example content) - Detailed species accounts combining *taxonomy*, *distribution*, *history*, and *extinction narrative*. - Includes both birds known from specimens (skins, mounted birds, or skeletons) and those recorded only in historical writings or illustrations. - Many entries include **beautiful color plates** (lithographs) by artists like Keulemans, Frohawk, and Grönvold, which are now considered highly collectible works of natural history art.
# Structure - Begins with an expanded version of Rothschild’s 1905 Ornithological Congress lecture. * Divides extinct birds into those known from their external appearance and those known only from skeletal remains. - Emphasizes the overwhelming role of **human activity**—especially hunting, habitat destruction, and introduced predators—in their demise.
# Significance - Considered both a scientific reference and a work of natural history art. - Serves as a conservation warning long before modern wildlife protection laws became common.
# Legacy Today, *Extinct Birds* is valued for: * Its **historical scientific insight**—capturing the state of ornithological knowledge in the early 1900s. * Its **artwork**—often reproduced in modern books and prints. * Its **conservation message**—poignant in hindsight, given how many species Rothschild listed as “nearly extinct” are now gone. The original 1907 edition is in the **public domain**, which means it’s fully available to read, download, and reuse (including its illustrations).
Here are some links for Miro Traversi
- Rothschild Extinct Birds wikisource 
- Plate 5 - wikisource 