Field guide
A pocket-sized book intended to be taken into the field by the birdwatcher to enable identification of birds to be made on the spot. Field guides are well illustrated in colour with texts virtually confined to identification points. The first example was published in the USA in 1934, written and illustrated by Roger Tory Peterson, but the first British field guide, by R. S. R. Fitter and R. A. Richardson, did not appear until 1952. There are now three standard field guides covering the whole of Europe, namely, those by Roger Peterson, Guy Mountfort and P. A. D. Hollom (first published 1954); by Bertel Bruun and Arthur Singer (first published 1970); and by Herman Heinzel, Richard Fitter and John Parslow (first published 1972), the latter's coverage extending to North Africa and the Middle East.From Peter Weaver's Birdwatcher's Dictionary
Copyright © 1981 by Peter Weaver