Froehlich uses the Humphrey-Parkes (H-P) molt said to be "...the birds of mainland southeast As•a, terminology,as does Pyle. The two booksare thus the Philippinesand Borneo, includingpeninsular fullycompatible. Steven N. G. Howellet al. recently Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, Indochina, South proposeda revisionto thisterminologywherein the China, Hong Kong and Taiwan." The rest of prejuvenalmolt is equivalentto the first prebasic Indonesia is not included. Although the original molt and the presupplementaland first prebasic concept was for the book to be "as complete as molts of H-P are called formative molts. If this possible," practicality dictated that it mainly revisionis adopted, as I expect it will be in Pyle's features "easy-to-see"species. It is intended for part II, thereis considerablepotential for confusion "birders" and has no other relevance to b•rd among inexperiencedbanders attemptingto use banding. Pyle and/orFroelich. I hopethat bothbooks will be revised accordingly.Jenni and Winkler, adding to The book is handy field-guidesize (13 cm. x 19 the confusion,used yet another terminology! cm.). There are two pages of Acknowledgements, 12 pages of thorough Introduction,dealing with Any bander at all uncertainof the principlesand The Joy of Birdwatching, Birding Techniques, practiceof determiningage of birdsby plumage,or Habitats, The Bird Year, Places to Go and intimidatedby Pyle, will benefit from Froehlich's Conservation which includes a list of endemics. book. The book also shouldbe requiredreading in Taiwan now has 15 endemics, up from 14 since every bander training program. If I could make this bookwas published.This introductorysection reading Froehlich a prerequisite for purchasing is one of the best that I have come across. The Pyle, I would! "How to Use This Book" section includes Area Covered (see above), Nomenclature,Taxonomy Froehlich's book can be purchased by check or and Sequence (as in A Field Guide to the Birds of moneyorder for $15.00 pluspostage ($3.50 to U.S. South-EastAsiaby King,Dickinson and Woodcock, destinations,$5.00 elsewhere) from Slate Creek 19751,with smalladjustments), Family and Genus, Press, Box 219, Bolinas, CA 94970. Readers with Photographs, Bird Topography, Voice, Habits, Internet access can find further ordering infor- Distribution and Status, Abundance Code and mation at http://www.birdpop.org. GloballyThreatened Status. The back of the book includesa useful Glossary, Selected Bibliography Kenneth M. Burton and a small Further Information section listing Box 716 details on Oriental Bird Club, Birdlife International Inverness, CA 94937-0716 and Nature's Niche Pte., Ltd., a book store in Singapore.

There are 668 species covered as listed in the A PHOTOGRAPHIC GUIDE TO THE BIRDS OF Index of ScientificNames, with a distributionmap for each. In the Index of Common Names, the SOUTHEAST ASIA, INCLUDING THE species count is slightlymisleading, as some are PHILIPPINES & BORNEO. By Morten Strange. double entries (e.g., "Flyeater"= "Golden-bellied 2000. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ. Gerygone"). The descriptionon the 'back cover 398 pp., 700+ photographs.Soft cover. $29.95. reads "...more than 700 brilliant color photo- This book on southeastern Asian birds was the graphs..." I counted 736. brain child of Eric Oey, the C.E.O. of Periplus Approximately60% of the photographsare by Editions (H.K.) Ltd. The idea was to publish a Morten Strange; the remaining 40% were by 11 photographicbook, as complete as possible,on the birds of southeastern Asia and Indoneasia in other photographers.Most of the photographsare of highquality. Having dabbled in bird photography guide book format. It would comprise part of a myself,I appreciatehow difficultit must have been series of PeriplusNature Guides on that region. to get some of the shots. However, field guides Professionalbird photographer Morten Strange based on photographsinstead of drawings have agreed to author the book. The area covered is obvious limitations. As any bird photographer Jan - Mar 2004 NorthAmerican B•rd Bander Page 23 knows,some subjectsare more cooperativethan residentthrough the region; migrantonly in Hong others, and some are extremely difficult; also Kong, Singaporeand Borneo, includingBrunei." photographicequipment and techniques vary. The This book treats Striated Swallow Hirundo striolata book is not intendedas a "standalone" field guide, as a subspeCiesof Red-rumped.Other authors but ratheras a supplementto fieldguides that use treat Red-rumpedSwallow as onlymigrant through drawings.Plumage descriptions are limitedto a Taiwan and Striated Swallow as a resident sentence or two. The author states: "The birds in species. the photosappear exactlyas you will encounter them with no artisticadjustments." Perhaps. For p. 252: Spangled Drongo Dicrurus the vast majorityof speciescovered, there is only hottentottusis shown as breedingin Taiwan. This one photograph.In most species with sexual is apparentlyincorrect; confusion may have arisen dimorphism,the more colorfulsex is shown,with becausesome authorsindicate that subspeciesD. the less colorfuldescribed very briefly. Immatures h. brevirostris breeds in central and eastern China are also describedonly briefly.Resident birds are and Taiwan. Accordingto Clements, none of the shown in breedingplumage, while migrants are subspeciesof D. hottentotusbreed in Taiwan, shown in non-breedingplumage. Some other where it is consideredextremely rare? useful informationis omitted entirely. p. 281: MountainMorrison Laughingthrush Some specificcauses for concernare: Garrulax morrisonianus. Clements users would p. 53: Malayan Night-Heron Gorsachius have a difficulttime with that Englishname! It is melanolophus:Only the immature is shown. The betterknown as White-whiskeredLaughingthrush. text says that this speciesis "vagrantin Taiwan..." This is incorrect.The species is present in Taiwan p. 287: Formosan Barwing [Taiwan all year in small numbersin the botanicalgardens Barwing]Actinodura morrisoniana. The photo is in Taipei, the Chaiyi AgriculturalExperimental partly overexposedand not helpful. Station, and suitablehabitat elsewhere. The Jap- anese Night-Heron,which may be confused with p. 291: Grey-cheeked Fulvetta A/cippe the Malayan, is omitted entirely. The Japanese morrisonia.The photo is overexposed.There is Night-Heron occasionallyreaches the Chinese littleto distinguishit from Mountain Fulvettaon the mainland and Taiwan. facing page.

p. 82: Rufous-bellied Eagle Hieraaetus p. 295: Siberian Rubythroat Luscinia kieneriisso darkin thisphotograph that it is difficult ca//iope.The photois overexposed.This speciesis to see the field marks described. rare in Taiwan in winter?

p. 113: Nordmann'sGreenshank [Spotted p. 295: SiberianBlue RobinLuscinia cyane. Greenshank]Tringa guttifer. There are only a few The photo is of a rather drab female. This species recordsfrom Taiwan in spiteof the indicationon the is only a vagrant in Taiwan in winter? winteringrange map? p. 307: IslandThrush Turduspoliocepha/us p. 182: Black-cappedKingfisher Ha/cyon is a wide-rangingspecies with 50 subspecies, pileata is shown on the distributionmap as according to Clements (pp. 418-419). The breedingin Taiwanwith no qualifyingtext, making subspeciesshown in the photographis notnamed. it appear as common a breeder as Common Kingfisher,whereas it is in fact extremely rare p. 312: White-tailed Leaf Warbler there. 2 Phy//oscopusdavisoni. The photois overexposed. The identificationfeatures are yellow wash in p. 226: Red-rumped Swallow Hirundo grayishsupercilium and underparts,but I don'tsee dauricais shownas breedingin Taiwan. The text a yellowishwash in the photo. reads: "A wide-spread and locally common

Page 24 North American Bird Bander Vol 29 No 1 p. 320: Bright-cappedCisticola [Golden- the field would be limited.If you have room in your headedCisticola] Cisticola exilis. Which subspecies luggage, take it with you to southeasternAsia, but is this?Again, we are not told. It is certainlynot the do not rely on it as your sole field guide. If your Taiwan suspecies,which has a very pale head. destination is Taiwan only, leave this book at home. p. 343: Tiger Shrike Lanius tigrinus.This species is a vagrant in Taiwan? Jo Ann MacKenzie 15341-21st Ave. p. 374: BrownBullfinch Pyrrhula nipalensis. Surrey, BC V4A 6A8 Birders would have some difficulty identifying BrownBullfinch from this photograph,as it appears to have a white ruff. Which subspeciesis this? • Users of Birds of the World: a Checklist by Clements (2000 and subsequent updates) w•11 This book attempts to cover a very large geo- have difficultywith the nomenclatureof King et al. graphic area. Not surprisingly,the author and photographershave concentratedon the areas of 2 I thank Simon Liao for helpfulcomments on the coverage that they know best, and are birded most status in Taiwan of Nordmann's Greenshank, heavily. Unfortunately,Tawain was given short Black-capped Kingfisher, Spangled Drongo, shrift. As some bird species have many sub- Siberian Rubythroat, Siberian Blue Robin and species, it would be helpful to know where and Tiger Shrike. when the photos were taken. In some of the photographs,the birdis back-lit,making the details difficultor impossibleto see, as exemplifiedby the Brown Shrike on p. 342. In the field, of course, some birds are back-lit, or observed briefly in a posturenot usuallyseen, uch as shown by the Long-tailedShrike on p. 344. The flightsilhouettes of the swiftson pp. 170-173 are good; however, under field conditions,the details shown may be almost impossibleto see.

The book purportsto concentrateon easy-to-see species,but I am mystifiedby some of the choices. For example, in the Mt. Kinabalu area, I wonder why Whitehead's Trogon is included, but Whitehead's Spiderhunter is not, as in my experience the trogon is harder to find than the spiderhunter. Nordmann's Greenshank [Spotted Greenshank] is coded as rare and globally threatened, but Black-faced Spoonbill, also globally threatened, is omitted. At the time of writing, Feb 2004, 50 to 60% of the World populationof Black-facedSpoonbill is wintering,as American Golden-Plover usual, in the Tsengwen River estuaryof Taiwan. by George West Confusingly,"spoonbill" in the index took me to p. 57, Painted Stork and Asian Openbill.

Does the book succeed? Is it useful? Yes, with some reservations as noted above. This book is interestingto browsethrough, but its usefulnessin

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