Sandgrouse to Auks, Edited by Josep Del Hoyo, Andrew Elliott and Jordi Sargatal, 1996
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Handbook of the birds of the world Volume 3: Sandgrouse to Auks, edited by Josep del Hoyo, Andrew Elliott and Jordi Sargatal, 1996. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions. 821 pp, 60 colour plates, numerous colour photographs and distribution maps. £110. With the fourth volume expected imminently and with worldwide acceptance gained, there are no accolades that I can add to the many that have already been lavished on the HBW series. With this in mind, I can only say, again, that this book is cheap for all it offers, that it is a true landmark in the history of ornithological publications and a ‘must’ for ornithologists and birders alike. The general format and presentation of families and species continues as in previous volumes, as well as that of the plates and photographs. The overall quality and standards of plate and photograph reproduction are maintained in this volume; all on excellent quality paper. However, I would note that, at least in my copy, plates 31 (avocets), 37 (plovers), 47 (seedsnipes) and 54 (terns) look a bit pale or faded. A couple of very slight differences distinguish this volume from previous ones. The most important is the inclusion of a “Voice” ‘subsection’ under the description of all Gruidae and Rallidae. This subsection, which had been originally planned only for Passerines, is welcome in this volume, as it will prove particularly useful in the case of the rails and crakes, as much as it would have been for tinamous. I hope we can expect this subsection to appear in some of the other forthcoming non-passerine volumes. The other singularity is the frontispiece accompanying the Foreword, both by Robert Bateman. The illustration depicts a cliff with several breeding seabirds in the Bering Sea. A few main deviations from the sequence that HBW is following have been adopted, the only Neotropical species to be affected is Hoatzin Opisthocomus hoazin which has been placed, very sensibly, in its own Order, Opisthocomiformes. Other changes have been the placement of Plains-wanderer Pedionomus torquatus in Charadriiformes and the sandgrouse in Pterocliformes. The photographs continue to be generally outstanding, always depicting interesting habits or a particular behaviour. We can be delighted by excellent pictures of all of the Psophia Trumpeters, Ocellated Crake Micropygia schomburgkii, Sunbittern Eurypyga helias, Diademed Sandpiper-plover Phegornis mitchelli or Rufous-bellied Seedsnipe Attagis gayi. Beware the erroneously captioned photograph on page 113, which reads ‘Grey-necked Wood-rail’ Aramides cajanea, although the bird depicted is a Giant Wood-rail A. ypecaha. Unfortunately, but understandably, there are far fewer photographs of Neotropical species, notably of rallids, shorebirds and seabirds. Black-legged Seriema Chunga burmeisteri only receives a small picture of a captive bird. A couple of drawbacks can be pointed out concerning the photos and plates, and these are shared with the other volumes. A particular problem with photographs is that the data accompanying them is not standardised and in many cases is deficient. As an example, the caption for the Giant Coot Fulica gigantea photo on page 115 provides details of the site, locality and country, whereas that of the Egyptian Plover Pluvianus aegyptius on page 368 merely states ‘Africa’, and that of the Diademed Sandpiper-plover (like many others) completely lack locality data. In most cases, the date would have also been helpful if included. The plates are also generally of excellent quality. I noticed that the number of artists has risen from five in Vol. 1 to 10 and nine in Vol. 2 and 3 respectively. However, this has appeared only to lower the overall quality, and now plates of excellent quality and precision like 27 (Rostratulidae), 41 and 42 (snipes, dowitchers and curlews), 49 (Stercorariidae) and 50 and 52 (gulls), cohabit with rather poor ones like 10 and 11 (crakes, where bill coloration has been completely disregarded), 47 (Thinocoridae) or 54 and 55 (terns). The maps are open to some criticism, although an improvement should also be noted. Their shape used to look a bit ‘loose’, and the contour of Patagonia in the maps in Vol. 1 and 2 was completely wrong. This has been fixed in Vol. 3, but only in the maps depicting South America; those of the whole world continue to be incorrect. The smaller scale, regional or continental maps would have greatly benefitted from the inclusion of political boundaries. In several cases, maps are presented on too large a scale and fail to show the correct details of bird distribution. This usually leads to ‘overshading’, and the maps of Rufous-sided Crake Laterallus melanophaius, Red-and-white Crake Laterallus leucopyrrhus, Ash-throated Crake Porzana albicollis, Blackish Oystercatcher Haematopus ater and Large-billed Tern Phaetusa simplex, for example, are far from accurate. A ‘knowledgeable pencil’ could have easily corrected these problems. Although I believe HBW to be excellent, I would like to point out several other flaws, mistakes or problems unique to this volume. As in previous volumes, the main contribution of HBW is its Family accounts, with the Species accounts less helpful or in some cases poor. At the Family level, two taxonomic arrangements struck me as surprising. The first is the arbitrary lumping of all forms in the Himantopus genus (except for H. novaezelandiae). Recent authors have tended to afford Black-necked Stilt H. mexicanus specific or subspecific status alike, with Neotropical publications often regarding it as a good full species, probably following Sibley & Monroe4. HBW provides no explanation nor proper discussion to support their treatment, and only state that ‘...these forms are sometimes considered to constitute three to five separate species...’. One would have expected a much more consistent argument for lumping these forms or at least a thorough discussion of the case. A similar case is the resurrection of the genus Thalasseus for a group of six tern species, and the use of Gelochelidon and Hydroprogne. This item is indeed more thoroughly discussed, but again, more consistent arguments for their choice would have been useful. HBW does, however, provide proper and sufficient data to support the recognition of the genus Nycticryphes, distinct from Rostratula and contra their lumping by Sibley & Monroe4. In the species accounts, several problems can be noted. For example, Argentine records of both Limnodromus dowitchers, Willet Catroptophorus semipalmatus, Surfbird Aphriza virgata and Least Tern Sterna antillarum have been completely overlooked, despite the fact that all have been recorded at least four times and all are documented by specimens or photographs. Indeed, there have been a total of eight records of Limnodromus griseus or L. scolopaceus (although all may pertain to griseus). The Magellanic Plover Pluvianellus socialis species account shows a problem of communication between authors and editors. While the range map is consistent with the Distribution and Movements texts (which are both out-of-date) the Bibliography lists Narosky et al.2 which is the reference that updated this species’ winter distribution. Presumably, this reference has been added by the editors without even checking its content against the already written text. Also misleading, as an example, are the statements that some of the Aramides wood-rails have probably declined due to habitat destruction. As minor issues, one can point to the absence of some key bibliographic material, such as Reed3, a key reference for Black Crake Laterallus jamaicensis salinasi or the redundant mention of others, such as Howell & Webb1 under Diademed Sandpiper-plover, a species not treated by these authors. All these drawbacks (as well as the ‘overshaded’ maps) that I have pointed out involve a larger problem. Apart from authors of individual families, a relatively small number of people are involved in the compilation of this edition (as editors, assistants or correctors) of this mega-project, resulting in many points (eg. records, references, unpublished data etc.) being overlooked. Furthermore, only one Neotropical author has been involved in this project to date, whilst ten have been exclusively Neotropical families treated in the first three volumes. I am sure that problems like those I have pointed out for the Neotopics (mainly Argentina) are shared with other Neotropical countries, as well as other areas of the world with poor ornithological knowledge. If worldwide advisers were consulted, many (or even most) of these sometimes subtle mistakes could be avoided, resulting in a far more accurate and up-to-date text. An final item worth mentioning concerns the Spanish vernacular names used in the text. These have been ‘decreed’ by a team of seven authors (two of them editors of HBW) of Spanish origin and published in Ardeola. Although it is reasonable that Spanish people give Spanish names to birds, these are invented names (most often a direct translation of an English name) for c.3,000 species inhabiting Neotropical countries (which are also Spanish-speaking). The result of this work is some of the most ridiculous bird names that I have ever heard. Local (Neotropical) names have been completely and almost always unreasonably disregarded, and I severely doubt that these Spanish names will ever gain acceptance in Central and South America. Juan Mazar Barnett References 1. Howell, S. N. G. & Webb, S. (1995) A guide to the birds of Mexico and northern Central America. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2. Narosky, T., Di Giacomo, A. G. & Babarskas, M. (1993) Winter presence of Magellanic Plover (Pluvianellus socialis) in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. El Hornero 13: 309–310. 3. Reed, C. S. (1941) Notas referentes a Laterallus jamaicensis salinasi. Phil. Publicacion Oficial No. 14 del Jardin Zoologico Nacional de Chile 2: 7–21. 4. Sibley, C. G. & Monroe, B. L., Jnr. (1990) Distribution and taxonomy of birds of the world. New Haven & London: Yale University Press. Devastação e preservação ambiental no Rio de Janeiro by J.