Verzeichniss der Reptilien, welche auf einer Reise im nördlichen America beobachtet wurden

Pp. viii, 141, (2); 7 hand-colored lithographed plates (4 are large folding) after watercolors by Karl Bodmer.  Later brown cloth with spine lettered in gilt, 4to (12.25 x 9.5 inches; 315 x 245 mm).  This work provides a catalogue of reptiles seen on a journey through North America.  It presents some of the earliest accounts of North American reptiles especially of turtles (shown in 5 hand-colored plates) and salamanders (shown in 2 hand-colored plates - one is the hellbender salamander, endemic to eastern North America).  According to Adler (vol. 1, page 22-23), Wied arrived in North America in 1832 and spent time in New Harmony, Indiana with naturalists Thomas Say and Charles A. LeSueur.  In the spring of 1833, Wied accompanied by artist Karl Bodmer, departed on a 4,400 km journey up the Missouri River to Fort McKenzie in Montana collecting specimens along the way.  After spending a brutal winter in 1833-1834 at a fort in central North Dakota (where Wied almost died), Wied and Bodmer returned to Europe in late 1834.  Wied’s account of his North American travels is second only to Lewis and Clark’s report on the Trans-Mississippian region they explored in 1804-1806.  Wied spent the rest of his career studying his North American collections.  Wied described a number of America’s commonest amphibians and reptiles.  Wied's major work on the reptiles of North America, Verzeichniss der Reptilien, is offered here.  This monograph is best known for its description of the giant aquatic hellbender salamander (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis) illustrated with a triple-folding hand-colored plate after Bodmer’s watercolor.  Verzeichniss der Reptilien was published shortly before Wied’s death, in Neuwied, on Feburary 3, 1867 (based on Adler, vol. 1, page 22-23).  No ownership marks.