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Ornithologists

This section is ordered by date of publication with the most recent at the top of the page.

Specific ornithologists

Salim Ali
E. A. Armstrong
David A. Bannerman
Frank M. Chapman
Mark Cocker
T. A. Coward
Jean Delacour
Charles Dixon
Richard Fitter
Errol Fuller
John Gould
Bernd Heinrich
W.H. Hudson
David Lack
Richard Mabey
Stephen Moss
Ian Newton
Malcolm Ogilvie
Penny Olsen
Derek Ratcliffe
Henry Seebohm
Edmund Selous
G.E. Shelley
Eric Simms
Alexander Skutch
Alexander Wilson

The Lives of Dillon Ripley

Roger D. Stone

2017

"A Yale-educated Renaissance man, S. Dillon Ripley was a "courtly, determined, hugely ambitious, energetic, funny, and colorful ornithologist, conservationist, and cultural standard-bearer" who led the Smithsonian Institution for twenty years, during its greatest period of growth. During his watch, from 1964 to 1984, the SI added eight new museums and seven new research centers and began publication of the Smithsonian magazine. It was Ripley's vision that transformed "the nation's attic" from a dusty archive to a vibrant educational and cultural institution, just as he had transformed Yale's Peabody museum before it. Prior to his career at the SI, and running parallel with it for the rest of his life, was Ripley's work as an ornithologist, begun in New Guinea in the 1930s, continued through his PhD from Harvard in 1943, and culminating in his landmark thirty-year project documenting the bird life of India. His lifelong passion for ornithology led him to positions of leadership in worldwide nature conservation."

Sacred Ibis: The Ornithology of Canon Henry Baker Tristram, DD, FRS

W.G. Hale

2016

"Henry Baker Tristram was a surprising and remarkable man: explorer, ornithologist, and priest. With his wild beard (for which he required special permission from his bishop) he undertook expeditions to the Sahara and Palestine at a time when doing so was even more fraught with danger than it is today. As a founding member of the British Ornithologists' Union (BOU), he contributed regularly to its journal, Ibis, as well as other scientific journals. Tristram's nickname in the BOU was "Sacred Ibis". ..... This book follows Tristram's epic adventures and love for birds - from his boyhood on the moors of Northumberland - to his time as a Residentiary Canon of Durham Cathedral - and the people that influenced him - from his dislike of Gladstone whom he met as a fresher in Oxford to the offer of the Bishopric of Jerusalem by Disraeli (which Tristram declined). In the book are over 80 colour plates and a reproduction of Darwin's first letter to Tristram."

Spare the Birds!: George Bird Grinnell and the First Audubon Society

Carolyn Merchant

2016

"A year after founding the Audubon Society, explorer and conservationist George Bird Grinnell launched Audubon Magazine. The magazine constituted one of the first efforts to preserve bird species decimated by the women's hat trade, hunting, and loss of habitat. Within two years, however, for practical reasons, Grinnell dissolved both the magazine and the society. Remarkably, Grinnell's mission was soon revived by women and men who believed in it, and the work continues today. In this, the only comprehensive history of the first Audubon Society (1886-1889), Carolyn Merchant presents the exceptional story of George Bird Grinnell and his writings and legacy. The book features Grinnell's biographies of ornithologists John James Audubon and Alexander Wilson and his editorials and descriptions of Audubon's bird paintings."

Turaco Country: Reminiscences of East African Birding

Dale A. Zimmerman

2015

"Dale Zimmerman's singular memoir details a half-century of ornithological investigations in East Africa, at a time when Africa's fabled wildlife and wild habitats flourished beneath the snows of Kilimanjaro. Set against the political backdrop of the shift from colonial to African rule, Turaco Country documents a distinguished field ornithologist's quintessentially African experience among the lions, gorillas, Gaboon Vipers, and those exquisite turacos."

Witmer Stone: The Fascination of Nature

Scott McConnell

"Witmer Stone (1866-1939) was one of the preeminent ornithologists of his day, and has been called one of the last of the "great naturalists." In addition to his involvement in the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU), including editing their journal The Auk for 25 years and serving as chairman of their conservation and classification committees, he also produced an exhaustive flora of the New Jersey Pine Barrens which is still used today, and made lesser contributions to mammalogy and entomology. He worked at the Academy of Natural Sciences (ANS) for 51 years, and performed heroic work salvaging their historic bird collection, which had been neglected for twenty years prior to his arrival. Stone's name is also synonymous with birding at Cape May Point. The phenomenon of fall bird migration at that location was discovered by him, and his book Bird Studies at Old Cape May (BSOCM) was the earliest signpost pointing the way to what is now one of the most popular North American birding destinations. His Pine Barrens and Cape May books are still widely read by natural history buffs, and are not only considered invaluable for their record of historical conditions, but are admired for their vivid, descriptive prose that succeeds wonderfully in taking readers back to an earlier time."

A Love Affair with Birds: The Life of Thomas Sadler Roberts

Sue Leaf

2013

"A Love Affair with Birds is the first full biography of Thomas Sadler Roberts. Bird enthusiast, doctor, author, curator, educator, conservationist: every chapter in Roberts's life is also a chapter in the state's history, and in his story acclaimed author Sue Leaf - an avid bird enthusiast and nature lover herself - captures a true Minnesota character and his time."

The Feathery Tribe: Robert Ridgway and the Modern Study of Birds

Daniel Lewis

2012

"Daniel Lewis here explores the professionalization of ornithology through one of its key figures: Robert Ridgway, the Smithsonian Institution's first curator of birds and one of North America's most important natural scientists. Exploring a world in which the uses of language, classification and accountability between amateurs and professionals played essential roles, Lewis offers a vivid introduction to Ridgway and shows how his work fundamentally influenced the direction of American and international ornithology. He explores the inner workings of the Smithsonian and the role of collectors working in the field and reveals previously unknown details of the ornithological journal The Auk and the untold story of the color dictionaries for which Ridgway is known."

Birds In A Cage

Derek Niemann

2012

"In the summer of 1940, lying in the sun, I saw a family of redstarts, unconcerned in the affairs of our skeletal multitude, going about their ways in cherry and chestnut trees. Soon after his arrival at Warburg PoW camp, British army officer John Buxton found an unexpected means of escape from the horrors of internment. Passing his days covertly watching birds, he was unaware that he, too, was being watched. Peter Conder, also a passionate ornithologist, hat noticed Buxton gazing skywards. He approached him and, with two other prisoners, they founded a secret birdwatching society. This is the untold story of an obsessive quest behind barbed wire. Through their shared love of birds, the four PoWs overcame hunger, hardship, fear and stultifying boredom. Their quest would draw in not only their fellow prisoners, but also some of the German guards, at great risk to them all. Derek Niemann draws on original diaries, letters and drawings, to tell of how Conder, Barrett, Waterston and Buxton were forged by their wartime experience into the giants of postwar wildlife conservation."

More Than Birds: Adventurous Lives of North American Naturalists

Val Shushkewich

2012

"The fascinating development of natural history studies in North America is portrayed through the life stories of 22 naturalists. The 19th century saw early North American naturalists such as Alexander Wilson, the "Father of American Ornithology," John James Audubon, and Thomas Nuttall describing and illustrating the spectacular flora and fauna they found in the New World.Scientists of the Smithsonian Institution and the Canadian Museum of Nature worked feverishly to describe and catalogue the species that exist on the continent. Great nature writers such as Florence Merriam Bailey, Cordelia Stanwood, Margaret Morse Nice, Louise de Kiriline Lawrence, and Roger Tory Peterson wrote in depth about the lives and behaviours of birds. Early conservationists such as Jack Miner, the "Father of Conservation," created nature preserves.Today, noted naturalists such as Robert Nero, Robert Bateman, Kenn Kaufman, and David Allen Sibley do everything they can to encourage people to experience nature directly in their lives and to care about its protection and preservation."

The Man Who Saved the Whooping Crane: The Robert Porter Allen Story

Kathleen Kaska

2012

"Millions of people know a little bit about efforts to save the whooping crane, thanks to the movie Fly Away Home and annual news stories about ultralight planes leading migratory flocks. But few realize that in the spring of 1941, the population of these magnificent birds - pure white with black wingtips, standing five feet tall with a seven-foot wingspan - had reached an all-time low of fifteen. Written off as a species destined for extinction, the whooping crane has made a slow but unbelievable comeback over the last seven decades. This recovery would have been impossible if not for the efforts of Robert Porter Allen, an ornithologist with the National Audubon Society, whose courageous eight-year crusade to find the only remaining whooping crane nesting site in North America garnered nationwide media coverage. His search and his impassioned lectures about overdevelopment, habitat loss, and unregulated hunting triggered a media blitz that had thousands of citizens on the lookout for the birds during their migratory trips. Allen's tireless efforts changed the course of U.S. environmental history and helped lead to the passage of the Endangered Species Act in 1973. Though few people remember him today, his life reads like an Indiana Jones story, full of danger and adventure, failure and success. His amazing story deserves to be told."

Seabird Genius: The Story of L.E. Richdale, the Royal Albatross, and the Yellow-eyed Penguin

Neville Peat

2011

"The first biography of Lance Richdale, who achieved international fame as the father of Otago's albatross colony from 1936 and for his research on the behaviour of the Yellow-eyed Penguin and the sooty shearwater, or muttonbird. Richdale grew up in Wanganui, took a tertiary course in agriculture in New South Wales, and returned to New Zealand to teach mainly in rural schools in the North Island for several years, eventually taking up a position with the Otago Education Board in 1928 as an inspiring itinerant agricultural instructor and nature study teacher. Richdale never gave up his day job and incredibly in the weekends, holidays and evenings undertook major, meticulous and time-consuming research on penguins, albatrosses and several petrel species. His study of the muttonbird was achieved during prolonged solo camps on tiny Whero Island in stormy Foveaux Strait, where the wind blew straight from Antarctica. Neville Peat's biography searches the traces left by this shy and obsessed man for some answers to two questions: why? and what drove him?."

Arctic Naturalist: The Life of J. Dewey Soper

Anthony Dalton

2011

"Dewey Soper first travelled to the Arctic in 1923. During the next seven years he accepted three research postings on Baffin Island, each of which lasted between one and two years. In 1929 he discovered the breeding grounds of the blue goose in the south-west corner of Baffin Island. He also charted the final unknown region of Baffin Island's coastline. Later in life he worked in the western Arctic. Outside the Far North, Soper studied bison in Wood Buffalo National Park, documented bird life on the Prairies, and made a detailed study of small mammals in Alberta. Soper was the last of the great pioneer naturalists in Canada. He was also a skilled and meticulous explorer. As a naturalist, he was a major contributor to the National Museum of Canada, as well as to the University of Alberta and other museums across the country."

Aves: A Survey Of The Literature Of Neotropical Ornithology

Tom Taylor

2011

"This book was originally prepared in conjunction with an exhibition of books from the E.A. McIlhenny Natural History Collection displayed at the Hill Memorial Library in 2011, showcasing Four centuries of illustrated books on the birds of Mexico, the Caribbean, and South and Central America. The book is far more than an exhibition catalogue as it contains biographies of many eminent collectors and ornithologists who worked and traveled in the New World tropics. A commentary on the principal works produced by these individuals accompanies the biographical sketches."

The Bird Man Of Brisbane: Silvester Diggles And His Ornithology Of Australia

Louis J. Pigott

2010

"When Silvester Diggles arrived in 1855 there was little artistic or scientific talent in the small frontier town of Brisbane. By the time of his death in 1880, his paramount legacy was a large book on Australian birds, profusely illustrated with hand-coloured lithographs. Acting as his own publisher from 1865 onwards, Diggles produced the first substantial zoological work to commence publication in Australia. The compilation and content of this rare work of art and natural history is examined here in the light of Diggles' life and times, as well as his ornithological predecessors and contemporaries. So too is his role in establishing the first scientific society and museum in Queensland. Also presented in this lavishly illustrated publication are colour plates from his bird book, and some of his original bird paintings for the first time."

Birdwatcher: The Life of Roger Tory Peterson

Elizabeth J. Rosenthal

2007

"Roger Tory Peterson the Renaissance man who taught Americans the joy of watching birds also invented the modern field guide. His 1934 landmark Field Guide to the Birds was the first bird-identification guide designed to be used in the field by the average person. Its success led to the best-selling Peterson Field Guide series, which has since taught millions about virtually all aspects of nature. Peterson combined fine writing with detailed and beautifully rendered illustrations, ultimately publishing many other books and winning virtually every award and medal for natural science, ornithology, and conservation. Before long, he became the birding and natural history guru to the world and was recognized as the key force in alerting the public to the importance of preserving nature. There are now an estimated 70 million birdwatchers in the United States. For this meticulously detailed biography, author Elizabeth J. Rosenthal has created a fully rounded portrait of this hero of the conservation movement."

Ornithology, Evolution, and Philosophy: The Life and Science of Ernst Mayr 1904-2005

Jurgen Haffer

2007

"This book is the first detailed biography of Ernst Mayr (1904 - 2005). Ernst Mayr was the `architect' of the Synthetic Theory of Evolution, and the greatest evolutionary biologist since Charles Darwin (1809-1882), influential historian and philosopher of biology, outstanding, taxonomist and ornithologist, and naturalist. He is probably one of the most widely known biologists at all. He started his career as an assistant curator at the Museum of Natural History in Berlin (1926-1930) and then went to the US to become curator of ornithology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York for 22 years (1931-1953). His second career started in 1953, when he became Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology at Harvard University."

George Miksch Sutton Artist, Scientist, and Teacher

Jerome A. Jackson

2007

"George Miksch Sutton (1898–1982) is revered by bird lovers everywhere for his beautiful paintings. A Victorian gentleman, adventurer, and raconteur, he was trained in the sciences but felt equally at home in the arts. Jerome Jackson, a friend and colleague of Sutton, draws on extant correspondence, interviews, and personal knowledge to offer a portrait of the artist that will surprise those who knew him only in his later years. Capturing a superb ornithologist who worked under the most inhospitable conditions, from the arctic to the tropics, Jackson shows us a person who guarded his privacy and struggled with uncertainty. Jackson depicts a Renaissance man whose life was, more than a search for birds, a quest for knowledge through science and art in the service of humanity. Tracing Sutton’s roots through two generations, Jackson reveals what set him apart from other ornithologists and bird artists. Focusing on Sutton’s formative years—how he acquired his love of birds at an early age and how that love guided his life—Jackson then relates Sutton’s adventures in the Arctic, Mexico, Oklahoma, and elsewhere. Jackson’s account fills in details missing from Sutton’s autobiography, Bird Student. Gracing the book are fifty reproductions of Sutton’s art—twenty-eight in full color—including early, unpublished, or obscure works along with non-avian subjects."

Roger Tory Peterson: A Biography

Douglas Carlson

University of Texas Press

2007

"In this authoritative, highly readable biography of Roger Tory Peterson (1908-1996), Douglas Carlson creates a fascinating portrait of the complex, often conflicted man behind the brand name. He describes how Peterson's obsession with birds began in boyhood and continued throughout a multifaceted career as a painter, writer, educator, environmentalist, and photographer. Carlson traces Peterson's long struggle to become both an accomplished bird artist and a scientific naturalist - competing goals that drove Peterson to work to the point of exhaustion and that also deprived him of many aspects of a normal personal life. Carlson also records Peterson's many lasting achievements, from the phenomenal success of the field guides, to the bird paintings that brought him renown as 'the twentieth century's Audubon,' to the establishment of the Roger Tory Peterson Institute to carry on his work in conservation and education."

John Kirk Townsend: Collector of Audubon's Western Birds and Mammals

Barbara Mearns, Richard Mearns

2007

"The first in-depth biography of J.K.Townsend (1809-1851), an ornithologist from Philadelphia who crossed the Rocky Mountains to the Columbia River in 1834 and made two visits to the Hawaiian Islands. He returned home with a great haul of bird and mammal specimens: Townsend's Warbler, Townsend's Chipmunk, Townsend's Ground Squirrel, Townsend's Mole etc. that were used by John James Audubon in the preparation of his Birds of America and Viviparous Quadrupeds. The heart of this book is an exciting new presentation of Townsend's Narrative of a Journey across the Rocky Mountains, to the Columbia River, and a visit to the Sandwich Islands, Chili &c (1839). Although there have been several editions of the Narrative this version includes new material from Townsend's original journal, is the first to be fully illustrated and the first to include Audubon paintings of the very specimens that Townsend collected. Barbara and Richard Mearns also examine Townsend's Quaker upbringing, track him on his journey westwards, provide a modern zoological commentary on his discoveries, trace his troubled career, and discuss his association with Audubon and the major contribution that Townsend made to his famous works."

All Things Reconsidered: My Birding Adventures

Roger Tory Peterson and Bill Thompson III

2006

"A decade after the death of Roger Tory Peterson, his unique perspective on birding comes to life in these highly personal narratives. Here he relates his adventures during a lifetime of traveling the world to observe and record nature. Peterson's sense of adventure and curiosity could not be extinguished. While in his eighties, as one essay relates, his boat capsized in freezing water off the coast of Maine as he was filming a documentary. In another essay we watch his tiny rowboat get caught in an angry sea off the coast of Argentina. Then there is what Peterson called his most exciting bird experience: searching for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. Though Peterson was widely known for his illustrations, this collection reminds us of his accomplishments as a photographer, for Peterson was nearly as passionate about photography as he was about painting. The essays, photographs, and illustrations included here were carefully selected by Bill Thompson III, the editor of Bird Watcher's Digest, which ran Peterson's column, All Things Reconsidered, during the last twelve years of his life."

Ernst Mayr at 100: Ornithologist and Naturalist

Walter J. Bock and M. Ross Lein

American Ornithologists' Union

2005

"Includes a complete bibliography of Mayr's works and a DVD with a biography and an interview with Mayr."

A Bird in the Bush: A Social History of Birdwatching

Stephen Moss

2004

"Stephen Moss's book traces the history and development of this singular pastime, on both sides of the Atlantic, all the way from Gilbert White, the country parson who wrote The Natural History of Selborne in the 18th century, through the British servicemen who studied Black Redstarts from their German prisoner-of-war camp, to today's driven life-listers and twitchers who think nothing of hurtling the length of the UK by planes, automobiles and even boats in pursuit of a Grey-Tailed Tattler temporarily landfallen in the Shetland Isles."

Niko's Nature: The Life of Niko Tinbergen and his Science of Animal Behaviour

Hans Kruuk

2003

"This first full-length biography of Niko Tinbergen, lavishly illustrated with many of Niko's own drawings, describes his background in Holland, a naturalists' paradise, and the beginnings of his investigations into the behaviour of birds, fish, and insects. Hans Kruuk also explores is Niko's relationship with his colleague and co-Nobelist Konrad Lorenz. These were two men full of contrasts: Niko a charming, self-effacing field man and experimenter; Konrad a flamboyant and egocentric German, always full of new ideas. Niko's Nature goes on to follow Niko's progress in Oxford after the Second World War, where he became the world authority on the behaviour of animals in the wild: his inspiring book The Study of Instinct remains an all-time classic. As a scientist Niko will always be known for the four fundamentally different ways in which he asked the question 'why does an animal do this?' These questions, about physiology, development, evolution, and function, became known as 'Tinbergen's four whys'. But Niko's successes came at a price - severe and devastating depressions that were to plague him throughout his career. In this fascinating and engaging story, Niko's long-time friend and student Hans Kruuk argues that his impact as a scientist and naturalist was in large part due to his skills as a communicator, photographer, and film-maker. Niko's Nature is an intimate and insightful portrait of an extraordinary figure."

Horace Alexander: 1889 to 1989: Birds and Binoculars

J. Duncan Wood

William Sessions Limited

2003

Guardian Spirit of the East Bank

Moss Taylor

2002

"This is more than a biography of the acclaimed bird artist and field ornithologist, Richard Richardson, who lived at Cley between 1949 and 1977, as it also contains many excerpts from his personal bird diaries, which he kept from 1949 to 1970. The 232 pages are lavishly illustrated with examples of his watercolours and line drawings, as well as many of his personal photographs. In order to show off his paintings to the best effect, the book is in A4 format and is hardback with a dust wrapper. The eighteen chapters include accounts of Richard's early birdwatching days in St James's Park, London (when he was a teenager), his wartime service in India, Ceylon and Singapore between 1943 and 1946, and his subsequent return to Norfolk. The history of Cley Bird Observatory occupies three chapters. The book received very warm reviews in all the national birdwatching journals and magazines, and was awarded third place in the British Birds/BTO Best Bird Book of the Year 2002 award."

The Bird Collectors

Barbara Mearns and Richard Mearns

Poyser

2002

"This book examines the history and uses of bird skin collections and the many colorful explorers involved in their development. It is the first and only treatment of the subject, and appeals to a worldwide audience. The book covers all parts of the world, with particular focus on Europe, USA, and Africa. The Bird Collectors contains more than 160 period photographs, many never before published, showing famous collectors and ornithological expeditions."

Early Southwest Ornithologists 1528-1900

Dan L. Fischer

2001

"This book identifies more than 100 early ornithologists and explorers who entered the Southwest from 1528 to 1900, all of whom have contributed in significant ways to our understanding of the region's avian life. Dan Fischer identifies those individuals who documented the natural history of the Southwest and summarizes their contributions to our knowledge about the region's birds - particularly through discovering and naming them. He tells why the ornithologists came to the region, what they saw, who described and named the new discoveries, and who were the first to sketch or paint new birds. Beginning with accounts of the earliest Spanish explorers such as Cabeza de Vaca and Coronado, Fischer considers all who visited the region through the end of the nineteenth century, including such renowned naturalists as William Gambel, John McCown, Adolphus Heermann, Elliott Coues, Charles Bendire, and Henry Henshaw. In between, he recalls English mining speculators, French traders, army explorers, railroad surveyors, and more - all of whom contributed to ornithological knowledge. Although focusing on ornithologists, Fischer's text reveals the wonderful variety of avian species in the region and their relationship with human history. Featuring a comprehensive bibliography, illustrations, and maps that portray the westward march of exploration, it is a major sourcebook for southwestern ornithology and an essential volume for anyone interested in birds."

Vista Nieve : The Remarkable True Adventures of an Early Twentieth Century Naturalist and His Family In Colombia, South America

Melbourne Romaine Carriker

2001

"Vista Nieve is the story of two pioneering American families whose dreams led them to the lofty Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, in northern Colombia. Professor Melbourne R. Carriker's work is a biography of his maternal grandparents, Orlando and Eva Flye, who after many failed attempts developed a highly successful coffee plantation, Hacienda Cincinnati, on the high mountain slopes of the Sierra Nevada in northern Colombia at the turn of the twentieth century. The story goes well beyond coffee plantations etched into the Colombian jungles. It further documents the significant contributions of the ornithologist, entomologist, naturalist of tropical America, Melbourne A. Carriker, Jr., who greatly enhanced the bird collections of the Carnegie Museum and the Smithsonian Institution. By his side was his wife, Carmela Flye Carriker, whose tireless spirit contributed significantly to her husband's bird and bird-lice collecting efforts as well as the establishment of their own coffee plantation, Vista Nieve."

Pearls to Painting: A Naturalist in Ceylon: The Memoirs of George Morrison Reid Henry

George Morrison Reid Henry

Foreword: Bruce Henry

Wildlife Heritage Trust

2000

"The ornithologist and entomologist GM Henry (1891 - 1983) provided the illustrations for several ornithological works, including the Guide to the Birds of Ceylon (1955). Pearls to Painting is a compilation of extracts from his extensive memoirs. It contains the "Ceylon years" of Henry's autobiography, a narrative that describes not only the life and times of one of Sri Lanka's best-known naturalists, but also paints a vivid picture of life in colonial Ceylon in the first half of the 20th century."

Cheng and the Golden Pheasant: A Biography of China's Leading Ornithologist

Q-R Yang

Hancock House / World Pheasant Association

1995

A translation of a biography of a leading Chinese ornithologist.

Dean of the Birdwatchers: A Biography of Ludlow Griscom

William E. Davis Jr

1994

A biography of the pioneering field ornithologist.

Restless Energy: A Biography of William Rowan, 1891 - 1957

Marianne Gosztonyi Ainley

1993

"William Rowan was one of Canada's most prestigious scientists in the first half of the 20th century. A renowned biologist, outstanding conservationist, wildlife artist, and founder of the department of zoology at the University of Alberta, Rowan established an international reputation with his experiments on bird migration."

My Way to Ornithology

Olin Sewall Pettingill Jr

1992

"In this autobiographical account, Pettingill details the forces in his early life that guided him toward a distinguished career focused on birds. Endeavors apparently very divergent - taking photographs, participating in plays, and getting to know the outdoors - gradually converged with his growing interest in birds. He relished encounters with people who figured prominently in natural history before World War II, notably storyteller and broadcaster Thornton W. Burgess, artist George Miksch Sutton, and his professors at Bowdoin College and Cornell University. By the time Pettingill accepted his first full-time university teaching position, he was already a published author and had given radio and public presentations on birds. His achievements would center on inspiring others about the wonders of bird life. As a teacher and researcher he had both an immediate impact on his own students and a much broader influence through his books, which became standard texts in field ornithology. Greater yet was his role in encouraging amateurs - popularizing bird lore through his magazine columns, illustrated lectures, two dozen films, and hard work in ornithological organizations."

Prideaux John Selby: A Gentleman Naturalist

Christine E. Jackson

1992

"The Northumbrian landowner and gifted artist, Prideaux John Selby (1788-1867), was one of the foremost ornithologists of the 19th century. His reputation rests on his drawings and etchings (largely of specimens from his own collection) for his "Illustrations of British Ornithology". This was only a small part of his contribution to the study of natural history. This is the first biography of P.J. Selby to be published. The book is based on a series of vivid and entertaining letters that Selby wrote to his close friend and collaborator, Sir William Jardine, between 1824 and 1856. As well as discussing Selby's contribution to science and his techniques as an artist, Mrs Jackson sketches the background of the Northumbrian countryside in which he spent his life, his love of his family and estate, his involvement in local politics and his interest in the building of the railways."

Saving American Birds: T.Gilbert Pearson and the Audubon Movement

Oliver H. Orr

1992

"T. Gilbert Pearson (1873-1943) was one of the most influential ornithologists in North America, crusading for the cause of conservation a century before the current movement to save the Earth's resources. Working in the American Ornithologist's Union, Pearson and other pioneering conservationists radically altered public attitudes towards birds, lobbied laws through state legislature, and involved the government in bird protection. Their activities, documented in this biography of Pearson's early career, spearheaded the movement that led to today's Audobon societies."

A Himalayan Ornithologist: Life and Work of Brian Houghton Hodgson

Mark Cocker and Carol Inskipp

1988

"Our present-day knowledge of the birds of the Himalayan region can be traced back to the pioneering work of Brian Houghton Hodgson who was a 19th century naturalist, scholar and administrator. Born in Cheshire in 1800, Hodgson was resident in Kathmandu for many years and he described or collected over 120 species of birds new to science. He trained a team of Nepalese artists to produce water-colour plates of the birds of the Himalayas; this was never completed, but the collection of paintings is now in the possession of the Zoological Society of London. Most of the 49 plates selected for this volume have never been published before. While concentrating primarily upon Hodgson's ornithological work, this book also describes his contributions to other branches of natural history and ethnography, as well as his work on the nature of the Buddhist religion. His administrative career is also outlined and there is a chapter describing the changes to the bird life of the region since Hodgson 's time."

Elliott Coues: Naturalist and Frontier Historian

Paul R. Cutright and Michael J. Brodhead

1981

New edition: 2001

"Best known as the author of the pioneering Key to North American Birds, Elliott Coues (1842-99) was one of America's most renowned but least understood ornithologists and historians - as well as a naturalist, anatomist, taxonomist, writer and editor, Army surgeon on the American frontier, occultist, and the youngest person ever to become a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Now available in paperback, this comprehensive biography of a brilliant, ambitious, and phenomenally productive man ranks as the definitive life of Elliott Coues."

Bird Student: An Autobiography

George Miksch Sutton

University of Texas Press

1980

Research Is a Passion with Me: The Autobiography of a Bird Lover

Margaret Morse Nice

1979?

"In her incredibly productive lifetime (1883-1974), American-born ornithologist Margaret Morse Nice earned the admiration of ornithologists and naturalists in far distant lands. "Research Is a Passion with Me" is an enthralling autobiography of one of the great individuals in her field and of her time. A veteran traveller with an aptitude for languages, Margaret Nice, researcher-scientist-author, amassed considerable knowledge of many of the birds of the world. Significantly, her most important paper was published in Germany, far from her birthplace of Amherst, Massachusetts. The paper dealing with the Song Sparrow appeared in two parts in the Journal fur Ornithologie. Through the years, Dr Nice, a Past President of the Wilson Ornithological Society, and a Life Fellow of the American Ornithologist's Union, was elected to Honorary Memberships in the ornithological societies of most of the countries she visited. These included Britain, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy and the Netherlands. She was a much-admired corresponding member of the Hungarian Institute of Ornithology. In Toronto, Canada, The Margaret Nice Ornithological Club was formed in her honour. Though widely known as 'The Song Sparrow Lady', she was more than the ultimate authority on the Song Sparrow and probably the most famous woman ornithologist in the world."

Seventy Years Birdwatching

H. G. Alexander

Poyser

1974

A book about birdwatching, birdwatchers, the development of modern ornithology and birds.

The Living Air: The Memoirs Of An Ornithologist

Jean Delacour

1966

6 Great Naturalists: White, Linnaeus, Waterton, Audubon, Fabre, Huxley

R.S.R. Fitter

1959

176 pages.