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at last the shell guide british birds (2 Viewers)
- Thread starter Prestdj
- Start date
Stephen Dunstan
Registered User
I always assumed the Bruun and Singer guide was the one Bill Oddie sent up in his Little Black Bird Book - 'common where there are lots of them', overly busy layout etc.
David Ferguson
Well-known member
Between 1947 and 1955 Penguin published the first 3 volumes of Bird Recognition, text and charts by James Fisher, illustrations by 'Fish-hawk', maps by WB Alexander. The promised 4th volume (small passerines) was never published. The coverage was the British Isles only and the books were monochrome. The text was in a kind of shorthand and was quite detailed on courtship and breeding, surprising given the title. One innovation was the circular charts which showed what the birds were doing at any given time of the year. The other innovation was the keying system, devised by Fisher. It was like the keys you get in botanical books which assume that the species that you are trying to identify does not move. He illustrates its use by assuming you are on Tiree Beach looking at a flock of small waders. After going through 8 stages of the key you end up with 3 choices: Dunlin, Purple Sandpiper and Sanderling. You finally choose Sanderling. Fisher was an eminent field naturalist so how he could have thought this was a sensible way of identifying birds is beyond me. I suspect the 4th volume was never published because Penguin realised that the series was completely outclassed by the recently published colour guides which relied on good illustrations for identification.
BTW, the 1995 edition of HFP, which was a complete revision, took the book to a different level.
BTW, the 1995 edition of HFP, which was a complete revision, took the book to a different level.
l_raty
laurent raty
So did the 1986 ed of the Bruun & Singer -- with a text revised by Lars Svensson and Håkan Delin, and some of AB Singer's original plates (notably the shorebirds) replaced with new plates by Dan Zetterström.
John Cantelo
Well-known member
Few British birders seem to be aware that there was a German version of the Shell Guide - Vogel Mitteleuropas - which covered 540 species (vs 488 in the orginal) and which had slightly better printed plates. Naturally, this book illustrated and described a number of non-British species. It was published four years after the Shell Guide came out and covered most European birds (only omitting Iberian/Balkan specialites). For years I held out the hope that this meant a "European" version of the Shell Guide might appear but, alas, this wasn't to be. Unlike the Shell Guide it didn't relegate rarities to the back of the book (but it did have the advantage that it was easier to see all the species on the front cover!).
I rather liked the illustrations in the Fitter guide which, whatever their shortcomings, were much better than the dire distorted cartoons in Singer & Bruun which I loathed. Singer's warblers and pipits were, I think, particularly dreadful. Fitter et al also did a better job of tackling subspecies. I also have a particular affection for James Fisher's Bird Recognition as my father had a copy of Vol 1 (pub. 1947) on waders & seabirds (quite why I never discovered as, although very supportive, he was never particularly interested in birds). The monochrome illustrations in Fisher's book weren't very useful for field ID but it packed in a lot of info about birds and was, I think, the first British bird guide to attempt to map bird distribution. (When did the American Peterson guide get maps?). I was told that the fourth volume was never completed because the information pie charts just got too complicated for many small passerines which wouldn't be a surprise given the complexity of those that were covered)
Perhaps the greatest "what if" of bird guides is Eric Enion's projected field guide. I've only seen the unfinished small falcons plate (see below) and whilst the lack of feather detail may not be to mordern tastes his ability to catch the essence of a species, the antithesis of Singer's style, would have made it a remarkable book. It was well ahead of its time dating from the 1940s but it which was strangled at birth by an unsympathetic advisor to the suggested publisher. Do other designs for the plates survive? I'd love to see them.
I rather liked the illustrations in the Fitter guide which, whatever their shortcomings, were much better than the dire distorted cartoons in Singer & Bruun which I loathed. Singer's warblers and pipits were, I think, particularly dreadful. Fitter et al also did a better job of tackling subspecies. I also have a particular affection for James Fisher's Bird Recognition as my father had a copy of Vol 1 (pub. 1947) on waders & seabirds (quite why I never discovered as, although very supportive, he was never particularly interested in birds). The monochrome illustrations in Fisher's book weren't very useful for field ID but it packed in a lot of info about birds and was, I think, the first British bird guide to attempt to map bird distribution. (When did the American Peterson guide get maps?). I was told that the fourth volume was never completed because the information pie charts just got too complicated for many small passerines which wouldn't be a surprise given the complexity of those that were covered)
Perhaps the greatest "what if" of bird guides is Eric Enion's projected field guide. I've only seen the unfinished small falcons plate (see below) and whilst the lack of feather detail may not be to mordern tastes his ability to catch the essence of a species, the antithesis of Singer's style, would have made it a remarkable book. It was well ahead of its time dating from the 1940s but it which was strangled at birth by an unsympathetic advisor to the suggested publisher. Do other designs for the plates survive? I'd love to see them.
John Cantelo
Well-known member
I never quite understood why that edition replaced the poor but usable (just) illustrations by Singer but didn't do the same for some of the far worse plates. In fact, had they done a proper job & dumped all of Singer's illustrations it would have been a really useful guide!
Stephen Dunstan
Registered User
So were the illustrations in the German version all done specifically for it John or are you saying reproduction was part of the issue with the uk version?
John Cantelo
Well-known member
Some of the illustrations were new but it mostly used the original ones but these were a little better printed.
Farnboro John
Well-known member
l_raty
laurent raty
A field guide to the birds (1947) was map-less.
A field guide to the birds of Britain and Europe (1954) had maps.
Well, it might perhaps be argued that, in a sense, 'they' ended up doing exactly that... It just took them another 13 years and two additional authors -- and, at the end of the process, the guide had become an entirely new book.
Stephen Dunstan
Registered User
Reminds me of a lot of the stuff DIM Wallace went on to do.
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