Mexican Birds, First Impressions: Based upon an Ornithological Expedition to Tamaulipas, Nuevo León, and Coahuila with an Appendix Briefly Describing all Mexican Birds

George Miksch Sutton (1898-1982) was an American ornithologist and bird artist. He published numerous technical papers in ornithology as well as more popular works illustrated with his own art. His early artistic work was inspired and tutored by Louis Agassiz Fuertes. In 1931, he was the first ornithologist to find the eggs of the Harris's Sparrow, one of the last North American birds to have its nest and eggs described. He did extensive field work in the Arctic (including Iceland), Oklahoma, Labrador, and Mexico. He received his doctorate from Cornell University and held academic posts at the University of Michigan and the University of Oklahoma, Norman. he became curator of birds and associate professor of zoology at the University of Michigan. "Mexican Birds, First Impressions" was his first book. It is divided into two parts. The first part is an informal account of the author's day-to-day experiences in the fields, his intensely subjective thrill at finding a new species, and his cool, objective, and detailed descriptions of the birds he saw. With his words and illustrations, Mr. Sutton brings vividly before the reader such exotic birds as the elusive Refuscent Tinamou, the brilliantly plumages Coppery-tailed Trogon, the noisy Chachalaca, the strange Blue-crowned Motmot, and the regal Faisan Real or Great Currassow. The second part of the book is an appendix in which all Mexican birds are briefly and concisely described - an indispensable guide for both amateur bird lovers and professional ornithologists. Mr. Sutton has written Mexican Birds in the form a of a personal narrative. Mexican Birds is illustrated profusely; there are sixteen water-color paintings reproduced in full color and sixty-three pen-and-ink drawings, so detailed and so lifelike that the birds, even in black-and-white, seem to breathe.