A Field Guide to the Birds, the first book in the Peterson Field Guide Series, was published in 1934, and the visual principle on which it was founded proved a sound one. Although this book has since been extensively modified and revised, one important feature was lacking, a description of the nest and eggs of each species, an omission dictated by the limitations of space. Hence this new book by Hal Harrison, the foremost photographer of birds’ nests. It is intended as a companion to A Field Guide to the Birds, and seeks to fill the gap and to furnish information that had to be omitted if the bird guide was to remain a size to fit in the pocket. Actually, nesting is seasonal; information on identification is helpful to the field observer only during the spring and summer months.

The area covered by this book is somewhat smaller than that of its companion volume; it is restricted in scope to the United States east of the Mississippi River. Its usefulness diminishes on the Plains and in the more boreal parts of Canada.

I think I may take some indirect credit for Mr. Harrison’s career, because I recall a letter received from him more than thirty years ago, when he was a newspaperman in Tarentum, Pennsylvania. He stated that my own work, and particularly my Field Guide to the Birds, had induced him to abandon the world of the press and to seek fulfillment as an interpreter of nature—by lecturing, writing, and photographing birds. In turn he inspired his son, George, who is now the distinguished editor of National Wildlife and International Wildlife Magazines and also a fine nature photographer in his own right. Although Hal Harrison has filmed a variety of nature subjects and lectured throughout the country with these films, he has always had a special interest in finding and photographing nests.

At the turn of the century, ornithology went through a phase of collection; birds were collected (shot) and then classified. Eggs were also collected, by professionals and amateurs alike; however, much of the collecting by amateurs contributed little to the science of ornithology. Today the collecting of eggs—or, rather, their shells—would be meaningless. It no longer fits the climate of the times. In the modern context, only research concerned with embryology or with protein analysis (as a taxonomic tool) would justify the taking of eggs.

Not so long ago it was feared that drawing attention to nests by means of a guide such as this might lead to a resurgence of nest robbing. Now this fear is no longer valid; egg collecting is a thing of the past, prohibited by law, and replaced by the game of bird-listing—collecting sight records—and by birdbanding.

Bird nesting has now come of age with the discovery that hard pesticides of the hydrocarbon complex may affect the calcification of eggs and result in thin-shelled eggs that break or fail to hatch. Monitoring nests has become a highly organized procedure, yielding data important to the concerned environmentalist. These data are filed and analyzed at the Laboratory of Ornithology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.

There are dangers, of course, in careless or too frequent visits to nests. But whether you are a bander, a photographer, a systematic nest observer, or simply an armchair type, this book with its beautiful photographs and informative text will enhance and enlarge your ornithological horizons.