At thirteen, George Miksch Sutton planned a school of ornithology centered around his collection of bird skins, feathers, bones, nests, eggs, and a prized stuffed crow. As an adult, he became one of the most prominent ornithologists and bird artists of the twentieth century. He describes his metamorphosis from amateur to professional in Bird Student. Born in 1898, Sutton gives us his clearest memories of his boyhood in Nebraska, Minnesota, Oregon, Illinois, Texas, and West Virginia with his closely knit family. Recognizing birds, identifying them correctly, drawing them, and writing about them became more and more important to him. His intense admiration for Louis Agassiz Fuertes had a good deal to do with his beginning to draw birds in earnest, and his correspondence and his 1916 summer visit with the generous Fuertes taught him to look at birds with the eyes of a professional artist and to consider the possibility of making ornithology his career. By 1918, Sutton had talked himself into a job at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, which gave him fresh opportunities to learn and travel, and his 1920 field trip to the Labrador Peninsula stimulated his lifelong interest in arctic birds. Further expeditions to James Bay, the east coast of Hudson Bay—on leave from his job as state ornithologist of Pennsylvania—and Southampton Island at the north end of Hudson Bay, in search of the elusive blue goose and its nesting grounds, give us glimpses of field methods before the days of sophisticated equipment. Sutton ends his autobiography in 1935, with an account of his graduate days at Cornell University and his position as curator of the Fuertes Memorial Collection of Birds. Bird Student is about raising young roadrunners and owls and prairie dogs, sailing (and being stranded) in arctic waters, preparing specimens in the hold of a ship, hunting birds and caribou and bears in almost inaccessible regions, canoeing in the Far North, camping in Florida, and delivering speeches in Pennsylvania. Sutton's gift for mixing facts and philosophy lets us see the evolution of a naturalist, as his inherent curiosity and innocent enjoyment of beauty led to a permanent desire to preserve this beauty.

Bird Student: An Autobiography (Texas Pan American Series)

Biographies & Memoirs

Sutton, George Miksch

Professionals & Academics

University of Texas Press

At thirteen, George Miksch Sutton planned a school of ornithology centered around his collection of bird skins, feathers, bones, nests, eggs, and a prized stuffed crow. As an adult, he became one of the most prominent ornithologists and bird artists of the twentieth century. He describes his metamorphosis from amateur to professional in Bird Student. Born in 1898, Sutton gives us his clearest memories of his boyhood in Nebraska, Minnesota, Oregon, Illinois, Texas, and West Virginia with his closely knit family. Recognizing birds, identifying them correctly, drawing them, and writing about them became more and more important to him. His intense admiration for Louis Agassiz Fuertes had a good deal to do with his beginning to draw birds in earnest, and his correspondence and his 1916 summer visit with the generous Fuertes taught him to look at birds with the eyes of a professional artist and to consider the possibility of making ornithology his career. By 1918, Sutton had talked himself into a job at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, which gave him fresh opportunities to learn and travel, and his 1920 field trip to the Labrador Peninsula stimulated his lifelong interest in arctic birds. Further expeditions to James Bay, the east coast of Hudson Bay—on leave from his job as state ornithologist of Pennsylvania—and Southampton Island at the north end of Hudson Bay, in search of the elusive blue goose and its nesting grounds, give us glimpses of field methods before the days of sophisticated equipment. Sutton ends his autobiography in 1935, with an account of his graduate days at Cornell University and his position as curator of the Fuertes Memorial Collection of Birds. Bird Student is about raising young roadrunners and owls and prairie dogs, sailing (and being stranded) in arctic waters, preparing specimens in the hold of a ship, hunting birds and caribou and bears in almost inaccessible regions, canoeing in the Far North, camping in Florida, and delivering speeches in Pennsylvania. Sutton's gift for mixing facts and philosophy lets us see the evolution of a naturalist, as his inherent curiosity and innocent enjoyment of beauty led to a permanent desire to preserve this beauty.

Bird Student: An Autobiography (Corrie Herring Hooks Series)

Wherever George Miksch Sutton goes, adventure goes also, whether to the mountains and jungles of Mexico or to the Arctic Circle. But the northern regions seem to be his special love, and he has made many expeditions to them, always finding new birds, new people, and new experiences. Iceland Summer is his delightful, informal, highly personal account of his adventures in search of birdlife - a summer's quest for Icelandic birds. With ornithologist Olin Sewall Pettingill, Jr., and his wife, Mr. Sutton traveled over the craggy mountains, through lush meadowland, and along rocky coasts in search of the major species of Icelandic birds. He recorded, by pen and brush, the natal plumage pattern of as man' newborn chicks as lie could. That he was highly successful the paintings in this book attest, not least of all his majestic color portrait of the Icelandic gyrfalcon, which was used by the Iceland government in making a new postage stamp. . And lie is as skillful in depicting the spirit of the people and the country as in drawing and painting its birds. After the publication of Iceland Summer, Sutton was knighted by Iceland for his contributions to that country. . This book, which received the 1962 John Burroughs Medal for writing in the natural sciences, is being returned to print with five additional Sutton paintings in full color. It will be welcomed by ornithologists, bird watchers of all ages, and armchair adventurers everywhere. The text is most readable, the pictures to be found nowhere else. The whole is a book of utterly timeless value.The photographs reproduced on the jacket of Iceland Summer were made by Olin Sewall Pettingill, Jr.

Iceland summer: Adventures of a bird painter

University of Oklahoma Press

Fifty Common Birds of Oklahoma and the Southern Great Plains

Science & Math

Biological Sciences

Univ of Oklahoma Pr

"This book aims at informing readers, in a painless way, about fifty species of common birds of Oklahoma and the Southern Great Plains," says Dr. George Miksch Sutton, noted ornithologist, writer and bird painter. A full-page color plate of a Sutton painting of each bird faces the page of text about that bird.
The text itself does not describe the shape and color of the birds in great detail-the color plates do that-but accents the seasonal status of each species in Oklahoma, changes in plumage as the individual bird matures, important food habits, and breeding habits, especially of the species that breed in the area. Not all the birds discussed breed in Oklahoma or inhibit the state the year round. A few are found here only during migration or in winter, but these species are common in much of the state.
A treasure of entertainment and information, the book is written not for bird students or ornithologists but for the general reader who appreciates the beauty of our common birds and wants to know more about them.

Nature & Ecology

Eskimo Year by George Miksch Sutton.

Eskimo Year

History

Americas

Describes the migratory behavior, reproductive and nesting habits, habitat requirements, and other characteristics of sixty bird species from the house sparrow to the bald eagle

Birds worth watching

Describes the migratory behavior, reproductive and nesting habits, habitat requirements, and other characteristics of sixty bird species from the house sparrow to the bald eagle

Birds Worth Watching

At a Bend in a Mexican River.

Paul S. Eriksson

Pp. (viii), (4), 119; 11 color plates by Sutton (many are double page), 16 black-and-white photographs. Cream-colored cloth, spine lettered in black, color pictorial dust jacket with rock ptarmigan illustrated, 4to (11 x 8 2/3 inches). Original advertisement for the book laid in at front.

High Arctic;: An expedition to the unspoiled north

P.S. Eriksson

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Sutton, George Miksch. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Sutton, George Miksch

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Sutton, George Miksch. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Bird Student: An Autobiography (Texas Pan American Series)

Bird Student: An Autobiography (Corrie Herring Hooks Series)

Iceland summer: Adventures of a bird painter

Fifty Common Birds of Oklahoma and the Southern Great Plains

Fifty Common Birds of Oklahoma and the Southern Great Plains

Eskimo Year

Birds worth watching

Birds Worth Watching

At a Bend in a Mexican River.

High Arctic;: An expedition to the unspoiled north