Book Reviews

Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America
Roger Tory Peterson, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2008

Of all the great natural history books and teachings that have come down to us through the years, the example that Roger Tory Peterson first laid out in 1934 with his Field Guide to birds stands out as among the most important and influential. Peterson’s revolutionary idea to create a reference that naturalists could take along with them in the field helped change the way people learned about, and experienced, nature. His idea, the “Peterson System”, used schematic drawings of each species with arrows pointing at the key distinguishing features, or field marks. Organized taxonomically, with like species on the same plates, this allowed for direct comparison and immediate reference for birds encountered in the field. Thus, binoculars and field guides helped replace the shotgun as the favored naturalist tools for field identification. Over the past seventy plus years, the Peterson field guides have expanded to include many other aspects of nature (reptiles, wildflowers, rocks, seashores, astronomy, etc.). These diverse and comprehensive books have been wildly helpful in the teaching and popularizing of natural history.

Peterson’s first field guide, published when he was but 26, focused on the birds of North America east of the 90th meridian (roughly parallel to the Mississippi River) and was intentionally sized to fit comfortably in a day-pack or back pocket. He later completed a western guide, insuring that all of the bird species in North America (north of Mexico) had full coverage by the two guides. To commemorate the 100-year anniversary of Peterson’s birth and 75 years of Field Guides, Houghton Mifflin has just published a newly updated and combined Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America.

This new edition brings together all of the birds previously covered separately in the Easter and Western guides, along with a few structural updates and visual enhancements. Anyone familiar with past Peterson guides will immediately recognize the larger size, new cover art, and the helpful inclusion of range maps adjacent to each species description. A “one-page index” is provided on the first page and the book comes with a web address where users can register for access to a series of video podcasts. The podcasts contribute helpful tips, species comparisons, and an audio/visual guide to selected species. All the other key ingredients (topography of a bird, identification tips, silhouette plates) from the previous Peterson bird guides are again included here.

Peterson was not only a world-class naturalist but also a truly gifted artist. His beautiful and accurate paintings, combined with his scheme for pointing to key field marks, have been helping naturalists and bird lovers for many decades. If one is looking for a comprehensive bird guide, I believe only The Sibley Guide to Birds offers as much coverage, depth, and helpful organization as this new book. Peterson’s plates are as clear and detailed as any image one might find in the birding guide literature, and his natural history information (maps, species notes, etc.) will not only aid the beginning birder, but help add understanding to anyone that flips through these pages. Peterson’s guide, fully updated and revised for this anniversary addition, has been tested and loved for seventy-five years. I found it a natural and rewarding addition to my recent birding explorations.

Reviewed By: Brian Angelo Scavone, Mono Basin, Californiale

How To Do Ecology - A Concise Handbook
Rick Karban and Mikaela Huntzinger, Princeton University Press, 2006.

This is perhaps the best value for dollar investment any aspiring or beginning graduate student in fields even vaguely similar to ecology could make. The book is "How To Do Ecology - A concise handbook" By Rick Karban and Mikaela Huntzinger. It is well written, and it answers questions like "how should I approach my first presentation?" "How to get down to the nuts and bolts of a big-picture question" and "where is the balance between experiment and natural history?", while offering some well-thought out answers to more general questions, like "why does it seem like I am not keeping up in graduate school unless I am a complete fanatic about my research?" This book will will save you hours of work and perhaps years of pain as you begin your career as an ecologist, and it is at its core a positive message. If you an advanced grad or professor - give it to your best undergrads as they get going in their careers. It´s that good, and it took me only about 4 of my son´s swim lessons to read.

Reviewer: Josh Tewksbury, University of Washington, Seattle