The Peregrine Falcon by Derek Ratcliffe

The Peregrine Falcon (First Edition Peregrine Monograph in Dust Jacket)

Derek Ratcliffe's Classic Monograph on the Peregrine Falcon and the Pesticide Crisis That Brought It to the Brink

Bibliographic Specifications

• Title: The Peregrine Falcon
• Author: Derek Ratcliffe
• Publisher: T & A D Poyser, Calton
• Publication Date: 1980
• ISBN-10: 0856610267
• Edition Details: First published 1980 (T & A D Poyser, Calton).
• Binding: Publisher's maroon cloth boards with a colour-illustrated dust jacket.
• Physical Format: Octavo (8vo), xxxiv + 416 pages. With four colour plates by Donald Watson, 32 black-and-white photographs and 16 text-figures.
• Language: English

Official Condition Report

• The Book: Very Good (VG)
• Exterior / Boards: The maroon cloth boards are clean, with a straight spine and sharp corners. The fore-edge and bottom edge show age tanning.
• Interior: The text pages are clean and cream toned, with no markings seen. The binding is tight.
• The Dust Jacket: Present, in a protective archival-type plastic cover. The colour-illustrated jacket shows rubbing, chipping and browning at the spine head, a small hole on the front panel near the title, and a tear and crinkle at the top front corner. The flaps and edges are age toned. Graded Good to Very Good.

Synopsis & Historical Value

First published in 1980, The Peregrine Falcon is Derek Ratcliffe's detailed monograph on the species in Britain. It covers the bird's history, habitat, population and breeding cycle, and the effect of pesticides on its decline and recovery.

The book is widely recognised as a classic of its kind. It documents the biology of the peregrine and also tells the sad story of its decline under agricultural chemicals. A contemporary review treated the falcon as an ecological barometer, and a later commentator linked the work to modern environmental awareness.

This copy carries illustrations by Donald Watson, including four colour plates, and is a substantial volume for any collection of British ornithology, raptor literature or conservation history.

Author Profile: Derek Ratcliffe

Derek Almey Ratcliffe (1929-2005) is described as one of the most significant English nature conservationists of the twentieth century. He joined the Nature Conservancy in Scotland in 1956 and organised the British Trust for Ornithology's national Peregrine Enquiry.

He later served as Chief Scientist for the Nature Conservancy Council and wrote the 1977 Nature Conservation Review. His other works include Highland Flora (1977), The Raven (1997) and Lapland: a natural history (2005).

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