Seabirds
Shorebirds
Waterfowl
Swallows and Martins
Kingfishers, Bee-eaters, and Rollers
Finches and Sparrows
Crows and Jays
Warblers of the Americas
Terns of Europe and North America
Woodpeckers
Chickadees, Tits, Nuthatches, and Treecreepers
Sparrows and Buntings
Pittas, Broadbills, and Asities
Munias and Mannikins
Shrikes
Skuas and Jaegers
Warblers of Europe, Asia and North Africa
Parrots
Nightjars
Starlings and Mynas
New World Blackbirds
Rails
Owls
Shrikes and Bush-Shrikes
Swifts
Thrushes
Pigeons and Doves
Raptors of the World
Sylvia Warblers
Wrens, Dippers, and Thrashers
Sunbirds
Pheasants, Partridges, and Grouse
Stonechats
Pipits and Wagtails
Gulls of North America, Europe, and Asia

On 27 April 1934 the first printing of Roger Tory Peterson classic bird book: "A Field Guide to the Birds" was published by Houghton Mifflin of Boston. Since Peterson's death in 1996, this book has become a collector's item with prices to match. The first edition was printed four times between 1934 and 1939 when the second edition came out. Each printing (since these printings had minor corrections they are called "states", but are not considered new editions) can be identified by the following:

1st state: The year 1934 appears on both the title and copyright page (this is standard practice by Houghton Mifflin). In the Index "Bob-pumper" appears instead of the correct "Bog-pumper". Also two plates, the heron plate (opposite page 12) and the swan plate (opposite page 18) show white birds (Little Blue Heron, American and Snowy egrets on the heron plate and the Whistling Swan's neck on the swan plate) with grayish color instead of white. Finally the four color plates are covered by tissue guards, with the names of the birds shown on the plate printed on them, NOT by standard paper.

2nd state: The year 1934 is no longer on the title page and "Bog-pumper" is now in the index. Otherwise the second state is identical to the first state.

3rd state: The dirty gray plates have been cleaned up (most noticeable on the Whistling Swan's neck). The tissue guards are still present on the color plates.

4th state: The tissue guards are replaced by standard paper.

Only 2,000 copies of the first state were printed and 3,000 copies of the second were printed. The number of copies printed for the 3rd and 4th states hasn't been determined. As for current prices you can guess that the first state is the most expensive. A copy of the 1st state WITH DUSTJACKET recently sold for $1,500. Other states usually sell for between $100 to $200, more if the book has its dustjacket.

Outdated bibliography. Most of the entries in the bibliography were from the 1920s or earlier. Only a very few were after the mid-1940s making the book already somewhat dated before it was even published!

The subspecies nomenclature. Aldrich was responsible for the nomenclature of the subspecies used in the book. Apparently Aldrich had some interesting views on subspecies nomenclature. To quote from Miller¼s review in the Auk: "But persons using this volume should be aware that Aldrich has in effect functioned as a one-man committee on nomenclature." I believe Aldrich was trying to anticipate the changes to avian nomenclature due out in the 1957 edition of the A.O.U. Checklist. This might have thrown off the reviewers as to what Aldrich was trying to do. One minor point that Findley¼s review noted: "the cover jacket drawings are poor and add little to the attractiveness of the book." I¼ve noticed this too. The drawing of the Bullock¼s Oriole looks more like a wagtail to me! These criticisms aside, the reviewers liked the book with the caveat that the book could be used as a jumping off point for future research on Washington state¼s avifauna.

I also found some points of interest to the bird book collector. According to U.W. Press¼s records, 5,000 copies of the book were originally published. The following number of books were bound in the succeeding years: hardbound ‚ 1953, 1000; 1957, 2000; 1961, 500; 1964, 500.; paperbound ‚ 1968, 1000. The hardbound book sold originally for $8.00. Now you¼re lucky to find a copy for under $40.00. The paperbound version sold for $4.95 and is hard to find on the used book market. There are three things to check to see if you have an early binding of the hardbound edition:
_ The early bindings are an uniform off-white color. Later bindings are bicolored white and red.
_ On the title page, early bindings show incorrectly the middle initial of Stanley Jewett as A. instead of G. This is corrected in later bindings.
_ On the life zone map, the legend on the map in early bindings, the keys for "Arid Transition (timbered)" and " Arid Transition (timberless)" are reversed; again, these are corrected in later bindings. The reason I say bindings instead of printings is that it appears that the text was printed up only in 1953 and then bound up in later years. The paperbound version lacks the corrections.

I would like to thank Denise Clark of U.W. Press for her help while researching this article.