Consisting of images photographed from the pages of antique ornithological volumes, this book is Clark Winter’s tribute to the glorious world of exotic birds. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries explorers wandered the planet in search of the unknown, sometimes traveling for years with little communication. When they returned home with specimens of hitherto unknown species of flora and fauna, all were astounded by such visual extravagance. Of birds in particular, their shapes, intricate patterns and feathers were overwhelming—alternatively described as divinely inspired or the result of evolution and the battle for survival. Winter re-photographs these hand-coloured plates as a homage to their beauty and to the age of exploration that produced them.