Of a Feather

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Ebook in EPUB format. Available for immediate download after we receive your order

DRM:
Watermark

Publication Year:
2008

ISBN-13: 9780156035187

<DIV><B>Beyond Audubon: A quirky, &ldquo;lively and illuminating&rdquo; account of bird-watching&rsquo;s history, including &ldquo;rivalries, controversies, [and] bad behavior&rdquo; (<I>The Washington Post Book World</I>).</B><BR /><BR /> From the moment Europeans arrived in North America, they were awestruck by a continent awash with birds&mdash;great flocks of wild pigeons, prairies teeming with grouse, woodlands alive with brilliantly colored songbirds. <I>Of a Feather</I> traces the colorful origins of American birding: the frontier ornithologists who collected eggs between border skirmishes; the society matrons who organized the first effective conservation movement; and the luminaries with checkered pasts, such as Alexander Wilson (a convicted blackmailer) and the endlessly self-mythologizing John James Audubon.<BR /> &#160;<BR /> Naturalist Scott Weidensaul also recounts the explosive growth of modern birding that began when an awkward schoolteacher named Roger Tory Peterson published <I>A Field Guide to the Birds</I> in 1934. Today, birding counts iPod-wearing teens and obsessive &ldquo;listers&rdquo; among its tens of millions of participants, making what was once an eccentric hobby into something so completely mainstream it&rsquo;s now (almost) cool. This compulsively readable popular history will surely find a roost on every birder&rsquo;s shelf.<BR /> &#160;<BR /> &ldquo;Weidensaul is a charming guide.&#160;.&#160;.&#160;. You don&rsquo;t have to be a birder to enjoy this look at one of today&rsquo;s fastest-growing (and increasingly competitive) hobbies.&rdquo; <I>&mdash;The Arizona Republic</I></DIV>