The great man did not use an advanced or expensive binocular like us conoisseurs on here (what can be the close focus distance on that thing?) but here is something to cheer us up.
The Wikipedia article on Robbins (linked by Henry in post #18) has this: "...wrote Birds of North America: A Guide to Field Identification with Bertel Bruun and Herbert S. Zim (illustrated by Arthur Singer) in 1966[...it...]introduced innovative two-page spreads that integrated text, illustrations, range maps and silhouettes. Tracking the advances in optics available to birders, the book presented a wider range of plumages, in more color and detail, than previous guidebooks..." A footnote there leads to one of those fantastic text and pics articles that the computer and internet brings us instantly at a click, on North American field guides, by Laura Erickson. She says: "...the first field guide to be published in the United States, as far as I can tell, was...Florence Merriam Bailey's Birds Through an Opera Glass, published by Houghton Mifflin in 1889."
The beautiful Hamlyn Guide to Birds of Britain and Europe 1970, now in its nth edition, has in common with that 1966 Guide a major author, Bruun and the illustrator, Singer, and acknowledges Robbins, and Zim, in its Preface.
The Wikipedia article on Robbins (linked by Henry in post #18) has this: "...wrote Birds of North America: A Guide to Field Identification with Bertel Bruun and Herbert S. Zim (illustrated by Arthur Singer) in 1966[...it...]introduced innovative two-page spreads that integrated text, illustrations, range maps and silhouettes. Tracking the advances in optics available to birders, the book presented a wider range of plumages, in more color and detail, than previous guidebooks..." A footnote there leads to one of those fantastic text and pics articles that the computer and internet brings us instantly at a click, on North American field guides, by Laura Erickson. She says: "...the first field guide to be published in the United States, as far as I can tell, was...Florence Merriam Bailey's Birds Through an Opera Glass, published by Houghton Mifflin in 1889."
The beautiful Hamlyn Guide to Birds of Britain and Europe 1970, now in its nth edition, has in common with that 1966 Guide a major author, Bruun and the illustrator, Singer, and acknowledges Robbins, and Zim, in its Preface.
