Lee allen peterson biography of rory van

The Peterson Field Guides PFG are a popular and influential series of American field guides intended to assist the layman in identification of birds, plants, insects and other natural phenomena.

Lee allen peterson biography of rory van: Peterson, a native of Albany, earned

The series was created and edited by renowned ornithologist Roger Tory Peterson — His inaugural volume was the classic book A Field Guide to the Birds , published as were all subsequent volumes by the Houghton Mifflin Company. The PFG series utilized what became known as the Peterson Identification System , a practical method for field identification which highlights readily noticed visual features rather than focusing on the technical features of interest to scientists.

The series both reflected and contributed to awareness of the emerging environmental movement. Most books in this series use a section of plates of drawings usually reduced from commissioned paintings rather than photographs of the subject species, grouped at the center of the book. This allows for idealized portraits that highlight the identifying "field marks" of each species; such field marks are often indicated by arrows or straight lines in the plate illustrations.

However, in several books in this series, the plates consist of photographs usually without such arrows or indicators , such as in the guides for the atmosphere, coral reefs, rocks and minerals, and the old Charles Covell guide to Eastern moths. In many books in this series especially older editions , a number of the plates are in black and white.

However, most newer editions are often full-color or almost full-color and tend to be larger. In some cases, new "editions" in this series are entirely new books with completely new texts and illustrations. For example, the fourth edition of the mammals guide has an entirely new text and illustrations by new author Fiona Reid, because the author William Burt and illustrator Richard Grossenheider of previous editions are both deceased.