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

He was born inBoston, Massachusetts to Dr. Austin Peters and Francis Howie Lee on August 13, 1889. His early education was at theRoxbury Latin School, followed by his acceptance toHarvard University, where he graduated in 1912.

Peters interest innatural history developed early. His early collecting trips included traveling withArthur Cleveland Bent,Charles Haskins Townsend and H.K. Job to theMagdalen Islands. Three of Peters early mentors wereCharles Johnson Maynard, judgeCharles Jenney andOutram Bangs.^[1]

Ultimately, Peters was Curator of Birds at theMuseum of Comparative Zoology, atHarvard University. He served as president of theAmerican Ornithologists' Union in 1942–45, and also served as president ofInternational Commission on Zoological Nomenclature for a period.

Peters is best known for his multi-volumeCheck-list of Birds of the World (1931–52), widely referred to simply as thePeters' check-list. Compared to earlier check-lists written byRichard Bowdler Sharpe, the list by Peters made several significant advances, among others usingsubspecies (trinomial nomenclature), which Bowdler's had not. For the first four volumes Peters was awarded theBrewster Medal. Peters died before finishing the work, and the last volumes, as well as updates to some of the first, were completed byErnst Mayr,James Greenway,Melvin Alvah Traylor, Jr. and others, with the final being volume 16 published in 1987. This check-list has been highly influential inornithology, and has – either directly or indirectly – been used as a basis for numerous modern check-lists such asThe Clements Checklist of the Birds of the World byJames Clements,The Howard and Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World edited by Edward C. Dickinson,Distribution and Taxonomy of Birds of the World byCharles Sibley andBurt Monroe, theAOU Checklist of North American Birds byAOU, and the check-list to birds of South America bySACC.

• Clements, J. 2007.The Clements Checklist of the Birds of the World 6th edition. Christopher Helm.ISBN 978-0-7136-8695-1.
• 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., andB. Monroe. 1991.Distribution and Taxonomy of Birds of the World. Yale University Press.ISBN 0-300-04969-2
• Wetmore, A. (1957)."In Memoriam: James Lee Peters".Auk.74 (2):167–173.doi:10.2307/4081709.JSTOR 4081709.

• Check-list of Birds of the World – Online

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