Bruce Whittington wrote:
> Peterson was certainly a watershed, but there are many very
> good older
> books. And you should certainly go back at least as far as Ernest
> Thompson Seton, whose "directive marks" predate the Peterson
> system by
> thirty years or so. I think Peterson even credits Seton for the idea.

In the second edition (1939, 1947) of Peterson's A Field Guide to the Birds
(the eastern guide), Peterson writes as follows in the Preface:

"Those of us who have read Ernest Thompson Seton's semi-autobiographical
story, Two Little Savages, remember how the young hero, Yan, discovered some
mounted ducks in a dusty showcase and how he painstakingly made sketches of
their patterns.
"This lad had a book which showed him how to tell ducks when they
were in the hand, but since he only saw the live ducks at a distance, he was
usually at a loss for their names. He noticed that all the ducks in the
showcase were different--all had blotches or streaks that were their labels
or identification tags. He decided that if he could put their labels or
'uniforms' down on paper, he would know these same ducks as soon as he saw
them at a distance on the water.
"Many of us, later on, when the sport of bird-study first revealed
its pleasurable possibilities, tried to locate a book--a guide--that would
treat all birds in the manner that Yan and the ducks had suggested. We
found many bird books, but although descriptions were complete and
illustrations authoritative, the one thing we wished for--a 'boiling down,'
or simplification of things so that any bird could be readily and surely
told from all the others at a glance or at a distance--that, except
fragmentarily, we were unable to find."

Peterson then goes on to explain that this handbook, designed to complement
the standard works, is "a guide to the field marks of Eastern birds, wherein
live birds may be run down by impressions, patterns, and distinctive marks,
rather than by the anatomical differences and measurements that the
collector would find useful."

Some people have mentioned Chester Reed's little field guide. I have a
damaged copy of his 1905 book Land Birds--there was also a "Water Birds"
book and several others. It was undoubtedly useful to people early in the
twentieth century, who had little else to use in the field, but it is
nothing like Peterson's first guide. It is illustrated with the typical
quaint little paintings of its time, with the birds in different poses and
sometimes crowded rather unnaturally into their little rectangles when he
tries to get both a male and female together. But the paintings seem quite
accurate, and the book does have the advantage of grouping related birds,
one on a page. There is also a kind of "field key" in the back of the book,
based on prominent colors.

Burt Guttman guttmanb at evergreen.edu
The Evergreen State College
Olympia, WA 98505 360-456-8447
Home: 7334 Holmes Island Road S.E., Olympia 98503