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Audubon's Birds Of America (Tiny Folio)
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About Audubon's Birds Of America
Product Description All Audubon's brilliant bird engravings come alive in one complete package! This sparkling Tiny Folio™ edition of Audubon's Birds of America displays all 435 of Audubon's hand–colored engravings, graced with an illuminating introduction by Roger Tory Peterson that places Audubon in his ornithological and art historical context. Issued with the full endorsement and cooperation of the Audubon Society, the stunning Baby Elephant Folio―here reproduced in a miniature, gem-like version―was the first work ever to arrange Audubon's plates in scientific order. Review "A brilliant achievement." — The New York Times About the Author Roger Tory Peterson was widely regarded as America's most notable ornithologist from his historic publication of A Field Guide to the Birds in 1934 to his death in 1996. Virginia Marie Peterson is a scientist and an expert on the environmental effects of oil spills. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Excerpt from: Audubon's Birds of America Introduction The Audubon Ethic Like many another genius, John James Audubon was "the right man in the right place at the right time." He came to America with a fresh eye when it was still possible to document some of our unspoiled wilderness. He was also, during his lifetime, witness to the rapid changes that were taking place. Audubon’s real contribution was not the conservation ethic but awareness. That in itself is enough; awareness inevitably leads to concern. Audubon’s frequent references to the palatability of birds and their availability in the market make us realize how far we have come in bird protection, if not in our epicurean tastes. He wrote that "the Barred Owl was very often exposed for sale in the New Orleans market; the Creoles make Gumbo of it, and pronounce the flesh palatable." Not only does he speak with a gourmets authority about the edibility of owls, loons, cormorants, and crows, but also the gustatory delights of juncos, white–throated sparrows, and robins. It may seem paradoxical that this prototype of the woodsman–huntsman should have become the father figure of the conservation movement in North America. Like most other pioneer ornithologists, he was literally "in blood up to his elbows." He seemed obsessed with shooting; far more birds fell to his gun than he needed for drawing or research or for food. He once said that it was not a really good day unless he shot a hundred birds. But in his later writings, when recounting old shooting forays, there is a note of regret, as though his conscience were bothering him about the excesses of his trigger–happy days. He deplored the slaughter, especially when perpetrated by others—a double standard, if you will. But only once did he ask forgiveness for his acts. After describing the carnage that took place in the Florida Keys when he and his party landed in a colony of cormorants, "committing frightful havoc among them," he wrote: "You must try to excuse these murders, which in truth might not have been so numerous had I not thought of you [the reader] quite as often while on the Florida Keys, with the burning sun over my head and my body oozing at every pore, as I do now while peaceably scratching my paper with an iron pen, in one of the comfortable and quite cool houses of Old Scotland." Repeatedly in his writings he reveals this dual nature, or inner conflict. After finding the nest of a pair of least sandpipers he wrote, "I was truly sorry to rob them of their eggs, although impelled to do so by the love of science, which offers a convenient excuse for even worse acts." Again, when he first met the arctic tern in the Magdalene Islands: "As I admired its easy and graceful motions, I felt agitated with a desire to possess it. Our guns were accordingly charged with mustard–seed shot, and one after another you might have seen the gentle birds come whirling down upon the waters…Alas, poor things! How well do I remember the pain it gave me, to be th
