James Lee Peters (August 13, 1889 – April 19, 1952) was an American

ornithologist Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...

. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts to Dr. Austin Peters and Francis Howie Lee on August 13, 1889. His early education was at the

Roxbury Latin School The Roxbury Latin School is a private boys' day school that was founded in 1645 in the town of Roxbury (now a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts) by the Rev. John Eliot under a charter received from King Charles I of England. It bills ...

, followed by his acceptance to

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, where he graduated in 1912. Peters interest in natural history developed early. His early collecting trips included traveling with

Arthur Cleveland Bent Arthur Cleveland Bent (November 25, 1866 – December 30, 1954) was an American ornithologist. He is notable for his encyclopedic 21-volume work, ''Life Histories of North American Birds'', published 1919-1968 and completed posthumously. Bent ...

Charles Haskins Townsend Charles Haskins Townsend (September 29, 1859 – January 28, 1944) was an American zoologist and naturalist who served as the director of the New York Aquarium, from 1902 to 1937. Early life The son of the Reverend Daniel W. Townsend and Elizabet ...

and H.K. Job to the

Magdalen Islands The Magdalen Islands (french: Îles de la Madeleine ) are a small archipelago in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence with a land area of . While part of the Province of Quebec, the islands are in fact closer to the Maritime provinces and Newfoundland th ...

. Three of Peters early mentors were

Charles Johnson Maynard Charles Johnson Maynard (May 6, 1845 – October 15, 1929) was an American naturalist and ornithologist born in Newton, Massachusetts. He was a collector, a taxidermist, and an expert on the vocal organs of birds. In addition to birds, he also s ...

, judge Charles Jenney and

Outram Bangs Outram Bangs (January 12, 1863 – September 22, 1932) was an American zoologist. Biography Bangs was born in Watertown, Massachusetts, as the second son of Edward and Annie Outram (Hodgkinson) Bangs. He studied at Harvard from 1880 to 1884, and b ...

.Wetmore, A. " In Memoriam: James Lee Peters" The Auk. Vol. 74. No. 2, April 1957 Ultimately, Peters was Curator of Birds at the

Museum of Comparative Zoology A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

, at

. He served as president of the

American Ornithologists' Union The American Ornithological Society (AOS) is an ornithological organization based in the United States. The society was formed in October 2016 by the merger of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and the Cooper Ornithological Society. Its m ...

in 1942–45, and also served as president of

International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is an organization dedicated to "achieving stability and sense in the scientific naming of animals". Founded in 1895, it currently comprises 26 commissioners from 20 countries. Orga ...

for a period. Peters is best known for his multi-volume ''Check-list of Birds of the World'' (1931–52), widely referred to simply as the ''Peters' check-list''. Compared to earlier check-lists written by

Richard Bowdler Sharpe Richard Bowdler Sharpe (22 November 1847 – 25 December 1909) was an English zoologist and ornithologist who worked as curator of the bird collection at the British Museum of natural history. In the course of his career he published several mono ...

, the list by Peters made several significant advances, among others using

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

(

trinomial nomenclature In biology, trinomial nomenclature refers to names for taxa below the rank of species. These names have three parts. The usage is different in zoology and botany. In zoology In zoological nomenclature, a trinomen (), trinominal name, or ternary ...

), which Bowdler's had not. For the first four volumes Peters was awarded the

Brewster Medal The William Brewster Memorial Award, usually referred to as the Brewster Medal, is awarded by the American Ornithologists' Union and is named for ornithologist William Brewster. It is given to an author, or coauthors who are not previous recipien ...

. Peters died before finishing the work, and the last volumes, as well as updates to some of the first, were completed by

Ernst Mayr Ernst Walter Mayr (; 5 July 1904 – 3 February 2005) was one of the 20th century's leading evolutionary biologists. He was also a renowned Taxonomy (biology), taxonomist, tropical explorer, ornithologist, Philosophy of biology, philosopher o ...

James Greenway James Cowan Greenway (April 7, 1903 – June 10, 1989) was an American ornithologist. An eccentric, shy, and often reclusive man, his survey of extinct and vanishing birds provided the base for much subsequent work on bird conservation. Early ...

, Melvin Alvah Traylor, Jr. and others, with the final being volume 16 published in 1987. This check-list has been highly influential in

ornithology Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...

, and has – either directly or indirectly – been used as a basis for numerous modern check-lists such as ''

The Clements Checklist of the Birds of the World ''The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World'' is a book by Jim Clements which presents a list of the bird species of the world. The most recent printed version is the sixth edition (2007), but has been updated yearly, the last version in 2022 ...

'' by

James Clements James Franklin "Jim" Clements (October 31, 1927 – June 9, 2005) was an American ornithologist, author and businessman. He was born in New York, United States. He married Mary Norton and they had two sons. His second marriage, which lasted 14 ...

, ''

The Howard and Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World The ''Howard and Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World'' is a book by Richard Howard and Alick Moore which presents a list of the bird species of the world. It was the first single-volume world bird list to include subspecies names, ...

'' edited by Edward C. Dickinson, ''Distribution and Taxonomy of Birds of the World'' by

Charles Sibley Charles Gald Sibley (August 7, 1917 – April 12, 1998) was an American ornithologist and molecular biologist. He had an immense influence on the scientific classification of birds, and the work that Sibley initiated has substantially altered our u ...

and

Burt Monroe Burt Leavelle Monroe, Jr. (25 August 1930 – 14 May 1994, in Louisville, Kentucky) was an American ornithologist, a professor at the University of Louisville, a member of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) beginning in 1953. Among his major ...

, the ''AOU Checklist of North American Birds'' by AOU, and the check-list to birds of South America by SACC.

References

* Clements, J. 2007. ''The Clements Checklist of the Birds of the World'' 6th edition. Christopher Helm. . * Remsen, J. V., Jr., C. D. Cadena, A. Jaramillo, M. Nores, J. F. Pacheco, M. B. Robbins, T. S. Schulenberg, F. G. Stiles, D. F. Stotz, and K. J. Zimmer. 2007.
A classification of the bird species of South America.
' American Ornithologists' Union. * Sibley, C., and B. Monroe. 1991. ''Distribution and Taxonomy of Birds of the World.'' Yale University Press. *

External links

Check-list of Birds of the World – Online
1889 births 1952 deaths Harvard University alumni American ornithologists American people of Dutch descent Roxbury Latin School alumni Scientists from Boston 20th-century American zoologists {{US-ornithologist-stub