Handbook of Birds of Eastern North America

"With keys to the species and descriptions of their plumages, nests, and eggs. This distribution and migrations and a brief account of their haunts and habits with introductory chapters on the study of ornithology. How to identify birds and how to collect and preserve birds, their nests, and eggs. With Full-page plates in colors and black and white and upward of one hundred and fifty cuts in the text."

First published in 1895, and still in print well into the 1960's, this rare 1903 edition with flexible boards, was unique in being the perfect book for taking into the field (vs. the hard bound addition). The use of a smaller size and flexible covers is a practice still in use today across many bird watcher guides. The book is broken down into two major sections: Introduction (The Study of Ornithology; The Study of Birds Out-or-Doors; Collecting Birds, their News, and Eggs), and The Birds of North America East of the Ninetieth Meridian (Key to Orders and Families).

Condition: Black flexible leatherette boards with gold gilt text to the front cover are in very good condition with little wear to the edges, no creases from excessive bending. There is cosmetic fading/rubbing to the top front board and on the rear board. Corners were rounded at publication with slight wear to the edges. The spine is straight, firmly attached, and with no cracking to endpapers but the back strip is worn with slight damage to the top and bottom, plus some rubbing along the gutters, especially the lower front. Binding and text block are solid with gold glit along all sides of the page edges. Age tanning throughout. Tissue guard is intact over the color frontispiece but has a small piece missing from the lower corner. Previous owner name on the dedication page. Interior pages are clean with no chips, tears, or other previous owner marks.

Frank Michler Chapman (1864 – 1945) joined the staff of the American Museum of History in 1888 and by 1908 he was the Curator of Birds. Over the course of his career, he made many advancements and accomplishments in the field of ornithology – he had the original idea for the Audubon Christmas Bird Count, he was a pioneering writer of field guides, was the author of many ornithological books and papers for scientific journals and magazines, promoted the integration of photography into ornithology. During the 1910's he conducted eight ornithological expeditions to Colombia with his team collecting 15, 775 avian specimens, along with 1,600 mammal specimens. Later expeditions in the 1950's, 1990s, 2010, and 2020, expanded on his methods of data collection to include observational data, citizen observational data and mist netting.