Encyclopedia of North American Birds [antikvár]

FOREWORD by Dean Amadon In December 1960, when John Tferres resigned his twelve-year editorship of Audubon magazine, he told me that he was planning to produce this encyclopedia. I was aware ot the gigantic scope of such a project, but then, so was he. Both of us knew that the materials for an encyclopedia of North American birds would have to be extracted from thousands of scientific papers that had been published in journals and technical books in America—some during the latter part of the last century, but most of them during this one. According to Joel C. Welty, in the preface to his 1975 edition of The Life of Birds, in 1864 there were only 2 serial publications devoted exclusively to birds. Tbday, wrote Welty, there are 250, besides the hundreds of other journals that publish articles about animal behavior, ecology, evolution, physiology, wildlife management, and many other specialized sciences, most of which include some papers about birds—a massive output, which represents more than 570 journals worldwide that publish an average of 4,000 ornithological papers a year, not to mention the many books about birds. I supposed that John would write some of the articles for his encyclopedia but, as editor, would delegate most of the writing and research to a staff of contributors. He told me that he had given this method considerable thought, but had decided against it. In truth, he said, the contributors would be the many ornithologists who had already published their research, which he would draw upon and cite in his text and bibliography. He hoped that I would not think him lacking in humility, but he, himself, wanted to make a compendium of these research achievements and write them in a nontechnical form that would permit anyone fascinated by birds to benefit from these scientific studies. And he felt that the writing of the entire book by one person would assure it a uniformity of presentation and writing style that would not be possible with a diversity of authors. At the time, John Tferres was certainly no newcomer to nature writing or to translating scientific papers into pleasantly readable prose. He had written articles about bu-ds and other animals, and nature and wildlife conservation in general, for a score of magazines and had written a book about bird-attracting. Songbirds in Your Garden, that has become one of the most popular in its field. A lifetime of highly varied field experiences with birds, and his faitiiful attention to keeping notes and records of his observations for more than thirty years, had helped prepare John for his great undertaking. He had also worked ten years as a field biologist for the U.S. government, specializing in the study of food habits of birds and applied ecology in the wildlife field. Then he had served twelve years as editor of Audubon magazine during the critical period of its evolution frqm the journal Bird-Lore to the more broadly oriented Audubon. During these years, John's correspondence and acquaintance with great figures in ornithology and entomology, botany, mammalogy, herpetology, and other natural sd-ences were extensive and continuous. He was fortunate in having such men as Alexander Wetmore, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, W. L. McAtee, a distinguished government biologist, and Francis Harper, a naturalist and scholar of the old school, as his close friends, mentors, and advisors. When John Tferres left Audubon, he moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina. There, while working in the seclusion of a cottage near a 600-acre, semi^wild farm that hai become a veritable wildlife reserve, he also had access to the libraries and scholarly facilities of three universities. With him, John took the patience and diligence of the scholar, the vision of this encyclopedia, and the capacity for hard work that the task demanded. Tb sustain his devotion to that vision, John Tferres knew that he needed an occasional diversion: between long periods of work on the encyclopedia, he took time off to write several other books. One, From Laurel Hill to SUer's Bog: The Walking Adventures of« Naturalist, was based upon field observations from his daily walks on the North Carolina farm. It was a proud moment for me at the April 1971 annual meeting of the John Burroughs Memorial Association in New York City, when I presented him with the John Burroughs Medal, awarded by the Association for his distinguished nature writ-ingin this and in others of his books. While at Chapel Hill, he also wrote the popular and successful Flashing Winirs; Tl'' Drama of Bird Flight; Discovery: Great Moments in the Lives of Outstanding Natural ists, and a revised second edition of Songbirds in Your Garden. He also served as editoi'" in-chief of the twelve-volume Audubon Nature Encyclopedia and editor of a thirty-