The Bird Collectors

An overview of the field covers the collection and preservation of specimens and the history of ornithological collecting while touching upon the lives of noted collectors

Every birdwatcher and ornithologist owes a debt to the bird collectors. Their skin collections and associated data have provided essential material for basic ornithological studies on classification, evolution, conservation and the geographical distribution of species. All the great bird artists worked from skin collections and today, skins are still used by artists who illustrate modern field guides, as well as by ringers, rarities committees and research scientists.
Despite this, the collectors are now more often reviled than praised. In this book, Barbara and Richard Mearns discuss the importance of skin collections both in the past and the present and ponder their future role. They challenge people's negative perceptions of collecting and assess it in its proper historical perspective. Many of the great field collectors are little known, yet they often risked or even lost their lives in the pursuit of birds. The Mearnses show the importance and variety of their worn, as well as telling great tales of exploration and adventure in pursuit of a better knowledge of the world's birds.