Iceland summer: Adventures of a bird painter

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.