Falco Babylonicus.

Folio (14" x 21"), colored lithographed bird plate. Small chip in lower left corner, some even browning and aging; still bright and colorful. John Gould (1804-1881) was born in Dorset, and spent his early career years as a taxidermist. By the late 1820s he entered the publishing business, and privately published his first publication that included folio sized bird plates (A Century of Birds Hitherto Unfigured from the Himalaya Mountains). The work appeared in twenty monthly installments. This work launched a fifty-year career that would pretty much use the same format for his future publications. This plate is probably plate number four from The Birds of Asia. ODB. Gould's Works on Natural History: Index.