THESE stunning pictures show one of the world's most expensive BOOKS - which can now be seen at a Glasgow library.

The Birds of America by John James Audubon is available to view at the Mitchell Library.

The treasured edition contains life-sized, hand coloured depictions of 1065 North American birds.

It was bought by collector Robert Jeffrey for his wife Margaret Reid for £300 as a birthday present.

Eight years ago a complete copy of the first edition was sold in London at Sotheby's for £7,321,250.

The Economist magazine estimated that five of the ten highest prices ever paid for printed books were for copies of Birds of America.

The precious book is kept under lock and key in a special vault.

But it belongs to the public and anyone can view it by prior arrangement - providing they are supervised and have proof of identity.

Library collections manager Trish Grant said: “This is one of the greatest works of ornithology, done in huge detail.

“The pages measure 39 inches by 27 inches, with 455 hand-coloured plates - they were done in detail in the absence of photography.

“You can see every feather, every shade of colour, every pattern on the birds’ legs.

“It is spectacular.

“It looks as fresh as when it was new.”

She added: “We have a duty of care to protect the legacy for the public, but we do want to make the collections accessible.”

Only 120 copies of the book were ever made.

The original drawings for the work were drawn from life or soon after death, and made over a period of more than 20 years, depicting birds in their natural habitat.

The library has 1.84 million items and the collection is still growing.