Coloured Illustrations of Sea Shore Animals of Japan.

Tokio, Koikusha, 1956. 8vo (21.0 x 15.0 cm). 167 pp.; 64 full-colour plates of animals and 12 b/w plates mainly showing habitats; a few text illustrations. Publisher's dark blue cloth with silver title on the spine, and silver title and mounted full colour vignette (showing a shrimp) on the front board. Pictorial endpapers. Full colour pictorial dust jacket. Original full colour cardboard sleeve. = A beautifully illustrated work. In this series, separate - much more common - volumes deal with bivalves and gastropods. However, it is a little-known fact that this work includes several mollusc groups not present in those, namely the chitons (Polyplacophora), cephalopods and sea slugs (both without or with only a reduced, internal shell). Other major marine animal groups treated are the crustaceans and echinoderms. The full colour plates are excellent. Written by the Japanese zoologist Huzio Utinomi (1910-1979). In Japanese (title also in English) with Latin names. Dust jacket worn, partly torn and chipped at edges and spine top; the cardboard sleeve with only little wear; and the book itself near mint, as new. Very uncommon, especially in the original cardboard sleeve. A very good copy.