From Book News, Inc.
This field guide for bird watchers features over 1,800 detailed color illustrations of birds of eastern and central North America with descriptions of their appearance, voice, habitat, and range on the facing pages. The brief notes on general range are keyed by number to three-color range maps in the rear of the book. A mini-tutorial on bird identification is found in the introduction. The late naturalist and artist Roger Tory Peterson developed the Peterson Identification System used by birders nationwide since 1934.Copyright © 2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR


Book Description
Roger Tory Peterson had already made his mark with his innovative field guide when he conducted DDT research during World War II. His friend and fellow naturalist Rachel Carson built on these efforts and eventually wrote Silent Spring, a landmark text that, along with Peterson"s field guide, jump-started the modern environmental movement.By combining the tireless observation of a scientist with the imaginative skills of an artist and writer, Peterson created a field guide that Robert Bateman, in his foreword to the fifth edition, says was the doorway for millions of people into the wonderland of natural history. The Peterson Identification System has been used in the more than fifty books that make up the Peterson Field Guide series. Peterson"s magnum opus, now in its fifth edition, created the trail for countless field guides to follow. They are still following year by year, but his is the standard by which all other field guides are judged.On the morning of July 28, 1996, Roger Peterson was painting his final bird plate. He died peacefully in his sleep later that day. It is fitting that his final work—a culmination of more than sixty years of observing, painting, and writing—should be this one, a revision of the guide that started his legacy.


About the Author
Roger Tory Peterson, one of the world's greatest naturalists, received every major award for ornithology, natural science, and conservation, as well as numerous honorary degrees, medals, and citations, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The Peterson Identification System has been called the greatest invention since binoculars, and the Peterson Field Guides® are credited with helping to set the stage for the environmental movement. Virginia Marie Peterson worked with her husband, Roger Tory Peterson, to research and create three-color range maps for several books in The Peterson Field Guide Series(R).


Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
CHIMNEY SWIFT Chaetura pelagica Common 5–51?2" (12–14 cm) Like a cigar with wings. A blackish swallowlike bird with long, slightly curved, stiff wings and stubby tail. It appears to beat its wings not in unison but alternately (actually this is an illusion); effect is more batlike, unlike skimming of swallows. They seem to fairly twinkle, gliding between spurts, holding wings bowed in a crescent. Voice: Loud, rapid, ticking or twittering notes. Range: S. Canada to Gulf of Mexico. Winters in Peru. Habitat: Open sky, especially over cities, towns; nests and roosts in chimneys (originally in large hollow trees and cliff crevices). Text copyright © 2002 by the Marital Trust B u/a Roger Tory Peterson and the Estate of Virginia Peterson. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company.

FROM OUR EDITORS

Roger Tory Peterson is a legend among birders, and for good reason. This is his final book -- he died peacefully after spending the day painting for this guide -- and it reflects Peterson's decades-long experience creating one of the most widely used identification systems for birds.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Roger Tory Peterson had already made his mark with his innovative field guide when he conducted DDT research during World War II. His friend and fellow naturalist Rachel Carson built on these efforts and eventually wrote Silent Spring, a landmark text that, along with Peterson's field guide, jump-started the modern environmental movement.By combining the tireless observation of a scientist with the imaginative skills of an artist and writer, Peterson created a field guide that Robert Bateman, in his foreword to the fifth edition, says was the doorway for millions of people into the wonderland of natural history. The Peterson Identification System has been used in the more than fifty books that make up the Peterson Field Guide series. Peterson's magnum opus, now in its fifth edition, created the trail for countless field guides to follow. They are still following year by year, but his is the standard by which all other field guides are judged.On the morning of July 28, 1996, Roger Peterson was painting his final bird plate. He died peacefully in his sleep later that day. It is fitting that his final work—a culmination of more than sixty years of observing, painting, and writing—should be this one, a revision of the guide that started his legacy.

FROM THE CRITICS

Booknews