Guide to Life and Literature of the Southwest, with a Few ObservationsDobie, J. Frank (James Frank)
History
Guide to Life and Literature of the Southwest, with a Few Observations
Dobie, J. Frank (James Frank)
Southwest, New -- Bibliography
PETERSON, ROGER TORY. _A Field Guide to Western Birds_ (1941) and _A
Field Guide to the Birds_ (birds of the eastern United States,
revised 1947), Houghton Mifflin, Boston. These are standard guides for
identification. The range, habits, and characteristics of each bird are
summarized.
SIMMONS, GEORGE FINLEY. _Birds of the Austin Region_, University of
Texas Press, Austin, 1925. A very thorough work, including migratory as
well as nesting species.
SUTTON, GEORGE MIKSCH. _Mexican Birds_, illustrated with water-color
and pen-and-ink drawings by the author, University of Oklahoma Press,
Norman, 1951. The main part of this handsome book is a personal
narrative--pleasant to read even by one who is not a bird man--of
discovery in Mexico. To it is appended a resume of Mexican bird life for
the use of other seekers. Sutton's _Birds in the Wilderness: Adventures
of an Ornithologist_ (Macmillan, New York, 1936) contains essays on pet
roadrunners, screech owls, and other congenial folk of the Big Bend
of Texas. _The Birds of Brewster County, Texas_, in collaboration with
Josselyn Van Tyne, is a publication of the Museum of Zoology, University
of Michigan, University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 1937.
_Wild Turkey_. Literature on this national bird is enormous. Among books
I name first _The Wild Turkey and Its Hunting_, by Edward A. McIlhenny,
New York, 1914. OP. McIlhenny was a singular man. His family settled on
Avery Island, Louisiana, in 1832; he made it into a famous refuge for
wild fowls. The memories of individuals of a family long established
on a country estate go back several lifetimes. In two books of Negro
folklore and in _The Alligator's Life History_, McIlhenny wrote as an
inheritor. Initially, he was a hunter-naturalist, but scientific enough
to publish in the _Auk_ and the _Journal of Heredity_. Age, desire for
knowledge, and practice in the art of living dimmed his lust for hunting
and sharpened his interest in natural history. His book on the wild
turkey, an extension into publishable form of a manuscript from a
civilized Alabama hunter, is delightful and illuminative reading.
_The Wild Turkey of Virginia_, by Henry S. Mosby and Charles O. Handley,
published by the Commission of Game and Inland Fisheries of Virginia,
Richmond, 1943, is written from the point of view of wild life
management. It contains an extensive bibliography. Less technical is
_The American Wild Turkey_, by Henry E. Davis, Small Arms Technical
Company, Georgetown, South Carolina, 1949. No strain, or subspecies, of
the wild turkey is foreign to any other, but human blends in J. Stokley
Ligon, naturalist, are unique. The title of his much-in-little book is
_History and Management of Merriam's Wild Turkey_, New Mexico Game
and Fish Commission, through the University of New Mexico Press,
Albuquerque, 1946.
WILD FLOWERS AND GRASSES
The scientific literature on botany of western America is extensive. The
list that follows is for laymen as much as for botanists.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account