Jenny and the Insects.
Philadelphia: American Sunday-School Union, 1857. First edition. Hardcover. A children's natural history, with a sprinkle of scripture alongside. In the 55 page section titled "The Little Confectioner" Jenny has a conversation with a honey bee. Along with an image of the African Honey Ratcl is a story about Major Mitchell in Australia. It says that he found many bees in some parts of the Australian interior and "on one occasion, examining his rifle, which he used frequently, he found it filled to the depth of two inches with wax and honey." It also mentions Col. Fremont in the Rocky Mountains. Other chapters include "A Great Ugly Spider", A Nice Little Housekeeper" (ants), "A Musical Family" (crickets), "Hunters and Miners", Two-Winged Insects".
Small 8vo, 298 pp, 8 hand colored lithographic plates of natural history subjects. Blind tooled blue cloth covers, title and gilt decoration on spine. Top of front cover rubbed o/w a bright, clean and tight copy. The illustrations are mostly of insects, the frontispiece is of butterflies and there are African Honey Ratcl and the great ant eater of South America.
OCLC: 5837887; Libraries Australia ID 27253227, with no mention of the reference to Major Mitchell. Very good condition. Item #26352
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