Birds of America - hardcover book - 1936 Garden City - rare first edition

Birds of America, edited by T. Gilbert Pearson, published by Garden City in 1936. Not the original University Society (1917) edition, but the first Garden City edition. Hardcover, in slipcase. I was puzzled when I first got this book and researched it. I couldn't find any edition published in a slipcase. Finally I realized that the previous owner had made his own slipcase and glued the dust jacket to it (front back and spine)! The dust jacket alone tells us this is the rare Garden City first edition, first printing. It is black, and all later editions were green, and had different wording on the dust jacket (on the bottom right). Those green jacket editions are fairly common, but this one is rare. One seller on E*** is selling the black dust jacket ONLY for $99. See also the embossed birds on the front - 1st edition only. The book itself is in very nice condition (because of the slipcase), but we'd have to call this without dusk jacket because of the slipcase home handiwork.