Edited by Walter Bock

REVIEWS Edited by Walter Bock The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds. Eastern Region.--John Bull and John Farrand, Jr. 775 pp., 584 colorphotographs. Western Region.--Miklos D. F. Udvardy. 850 pp., 62? colorphotographs. 1977. New York, Alfred A. Knopf; producedby ChanticleerPress, Inc., N.Y. $7.95 each.--Over four decadeshave passed since Roger Tory Peterson,welding brilliant visual insight onto the pioneeringframework of suchauthors as Ralph Hoffman, producedthe first practical field guide. Later, exceptional workers like Pough and Eckelberry, Robbins and Singer, etc. created variations on this principle through different approachesin format and style, but their efforts were always anchored in the belief that there can be few short-cutsto the learning process. Now, in bland disregardof yearsof accumulatedwisdom, the publisherand editorsof this currentset of booksare presentingwhat purportsto be a "revolutionary"method of field identification,one destinedto supplant outmodedconcepts. So pervasivelyeffective has been the promotion and distribution of these booksthat it couldonly be the disinterestedperson who is unacquaintedwith the generalformat. Therefore, this review will not take up spacedescribing such treatment in detail. It is only necessaryto state that this "new" methodis predicatedupon severalmisconceptions: that photographyis somehowmore realistic,less interpretivethan painting, and that the arbitrary assignmentof speciesinto categoriesof shapeor color(in the picturesection), and habitat(in the text) is both morespecific and moreinformative than the traditional arrangement reflecting actual relationships. To addressthe first issue,the questionmust be askedwhether photographscan be substitutedfor precise, diagnosticillustrations in a field guide. There is certainlyan abundanceof excellentcolor photography on displayhere, especially among the waterfowl,Laridae, shorebirds,flying raptors, and woodpeckers, almost all of it in faultlessreproduction. In general,the quality and coverageof the Westernedition surpassesthe Eastern in this regard; tompare, for example, the respectiveupland gamebird folios. This reviewer has no quarrel with photography--withoutmy clip file I would ceaseto functionas an illustrator--but it must be stressedthat it doesnot lend itself, in particular, to the depictionof passefines. The inherentlimitations are aptly demonstratedin suchcomplicated groups as flycatchers,wrens, vireos, and sparrows. I defy any novice to explain to me the salient charactersof the brown thrushesafter examination of the illustrations in both of these volumes. Egregiousexamples can be selectedalmost at random. What true understandingcan be gainedof Seiurus warblers and female tanagersin the Eastern guide, of thrashersand black cotrids in the Western, or of shrikesin either?The vagariesof light exposureare exemplifiedby the congenerickingbirds (East), of foreshorteningby the Wrentit (West), and of attitudeby the SageThrasher (East and West). Eclipsingall theseshortcomings is the fact that manyalternate plumages are simplynot included,e.g., immaturehawks and cormorants or non-breeding alcids and warblers. Misidentificationshave been kept to a minimum but I note the following: in the Eastern guide a female SpruceGrouse (no. 268) masqueradesas a Ruffed Grouse,the Black-headedOriole (no. 387) is an Old World Oviolus,and the immatureIceland Gull (no. 31) and Mangrove Cuckoo(no. 523), while presumablycorrect, portray misleadingcharacters. Also, someof the shorebirdsare incorrectlylabeled as to plumage, and the Virginia Rail is a classicmuseum mount. In the Westernguide, the New Zealand Shearwater(no. 70) is actually a Fluttering, P. gayla, accordingto an Australian photo of the same bird. The Willow Ptarmigan (no. 269) looks like a White-tailed, the winter Franklin's Gull (no. 34) looks like a Laughing, the Poor-will (no. 249) is clearly a nighthawk, and the "female" SpectacledEider (no. 142) is hardly a female. I would hazard a guessthat the SpottedOwl (no. 293), with discernableyellow irides,is probablya SpottedLittle Owl, Athene brama (both this photo and the SpottedDove I suspectwere taken in India). No. 516 leavesme puzzled;it doesnot appear to be a Solitary Vireo but is not quite right for a Hutton's or a kinglet either. To answerthe initial question,then, I mustrecommend a qualified "no"--photographyis just too erratic to sustainsolely the entire basis of a fieldguide. At the advancedlevel, to be sure,it isundoubtedly crucial to our understandingof certain problemgroups, but a beginnermust first developsome cognitive grasp of the charactersof each species.Only a knowledgeableartist can render fully and properly suchgestalt. The secondinnovation, that of visual organizationof pictures by shapeand color, containsmore serious drawbacks. Admittedly, the non~passerinesare arranged somewhat along conventionallines although certain sectionheadings are grammaticallygrotesque ("Upright-perching Water Birds") or plainly conde- scending("Pigeon-like Birds"). However, it is the color-groupingof perching birds wherein the absurdity of the whole idea is best revealed.Just how often is a Boreal Chickadee, for instance,perceived as "brown" 201 202 Reviews [Auk, Vol. 95 before it is recognizedas a chickadee?What rationale can be offerred for a "blue" female Cerulean Warbler (East), a "brown" female Red Crossbill(West) or an "olive/green"male Painted Bunting (East and West)? Inconsistenciesbetween the two editionsare exhibited by the placementof Blue-Gray Gnatcatcherunder "blue" in the Easternand "gray"in the Western, Tropical Kingbird under "olive/green"(East) and "yellow" (West), Common Snipe under "Upland Ground Birds" (East) and "Sandpiper-like Birds" (West). Con- tradictingthe editors'stated intent (p. 15, Eastern;p. 11, Western), the male Red-wing is placedonly in the "black" sectionwhereas its flashy shoulder-patchesare the first thing most peoplenotice. This chromatic schemeis not the bold new idea being promulgated--itsprevious manifestations in bird bookswere all predictable failures. As if to compoundthe heresy,the species'accounts--the entire text--are dividedup into broad categories of habitat. Certainly, somespecies may be reasonablyassigned to circumscribedhabitats, but the prefer- encesof many other speciesare more catholicand cannotbe pigeon-holedso neatly. Thus we discover,in the Easternedition, the Yellow-crownedNight Heron in "Fresh-waterMarshes," the Red-headedWoodpecker in "Grasslands,"and the Yellow-throated Warbler in "ConiferousForests;" in the Western edition, the LesserScaup in "Salt Marshes," the Black-chinnedHummingbird in "Alpine Meadows," and the Barn Swallow under "Inland Cliffs and Canyons." Sincethere is an impliedassumption in the Easternbook (pp. 19-20)that theseare breeding habitats, what is oneto make of Tree Sparrowsin "Grasslands"and juncos in "City Parks and SuburbanAreas?" The Rock Ptarmigan is listed here under "ConiferousForests" although the authors' habitat paragraph clearly says "opentundra," a categoryfor which thereis no entry. Apparentlyattempting to reconcilethe problemposed by Arctic breeders,the Westernbook does include two typesof tundra habitat but, eventhough an elaborate explanationis providedon p. 13, it too becomeshopelessly bogged down in inconsistency(e.g., Long-tailed Jaegerunder "Wet Tundra" but Sabine'sGull under "Open Ocean"). The readerwho findshimself stymied by sucha flawed conceptmay well recall with fondnessthose antique handbooksarranged by springarrival dates! Altogetherthen, it is next to impossibleto find anythingin thesebooks. Particular species, whether in picture or text, can only be located through the index. Family descriptionsare relegated to an alphabetically-arranged appendix, and even the photo credits lack cross-references. The respectiveauthors, nevertheless,have provided within this format very serviceabletexts that are equivalent to others on the market. The basic data, from Description to Nesting, fulfill their function admirably, while supplementalparagraphs comment further on each species.Among popularguides, only those by Pough contain a comparableamount of information. All this material really deservesa more suitable vehicle. The true calamity of theseguides is that they were tailored for and are being pitched to the beginning student.Any veteran already groundedin the fundamentalscan make use of the fine photographsand text--it is the amateurswho will find themselvesplugged into a malfunctioning,gimmick-ridden system. Had thesevolumes been publishedas lavish photo portrait-gallerieswith text, maps and other embellish- ments,I wouldhave praisedthem for studioreference as energeticallyas I condemnthem as workablefield guides.--GvY TUDOR. ]Railsof the World. A Monograph of the Family Rallidae.--S. DillonRipley; with a chapteron the fossilspecies by StorrsOlson. 1977. Boston, David R. Godine.xx + 406pp., 41 colorplates byJ. Fenwick Lansdowne;10 photographs;17 maps.$75.00.--Rails, the familyRallidae, are amongthe mostsecretive and little known of birds. Even in the United Statesthere are active field workers who have yet to seetheir firstBlack Rail or YellowRail, andthe long controversy about the voice of the latter has still not been settled to everyone'ssatisfaction. Fortunately, a few speciessuch as the AmericanCoot are tame, abundantand offereasier insight into the biologyof the group.Though of weakflight, railshave been wafted to many remoteislands where they are better able to survivethan mostbirds. The speciesresulting from

Load more