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Reviews the Birdwatcher's Yearbook and Diary 1989

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Reviews the Birdwatcher's Yearbook and Diary 1989 Reviews The Birdwatcher's Yearbook and Diary 1989. Edited by John Pemberton. Buckingham Press, Maids Moreton, 1988. 320 pages; 17 black-and-white plates; 8 line-drawings. Paperback £8.75. The format follows very closely that of previous years, with some changes in layout. The regular features of County, National and International directories are updated, with a list of guided birdwatching holidays in Britain an addition to the National. A new section is that of the 'Log charts', which have been 'designed to complement the birdwatcher's field notebook', providing columns for Life, Year, Month, 24-hour, Garden and Holiday lists, plus three for personal designation—that should cover everything! Over 20% more pages have been devoted to feature articles, making this section one-quarter of the book. Interesting and varied as the articles are, I basically see this publication as a source of very useful information, not only on the bookshelf, but also as a travelling companion, providing ready access to information on such things as reserves, observatories or tidal times. It is about the size of most field guides and could have been made even more compact with fewer articles. In general, however, the book is invaluable: it has all the necessary information about the birdwatching scene in Britain. D A VI I) M. C OTTR IDGE The History of the Birds of Britain. Colour plates and drawings by David Reid-Henry. Text by Colin Harrison. Collins, London, 1988. 224 pages; 48 colour plates; 33 line-drawings. £14.95. This unusual book brings together a fresh, innovative and readable text with beautiful plates (done, for a very different purpose, in the 1960s). From his studies of fossil birds, his interest in evolution and the geological past, Dr Harrison describes our avifauna as it now stands at the end of a period of two million years: a fascinating story of shifting bird populations resulting from changes wrought by climate and man. The late David Reid-Henry painted the 48 colour plates 30 years ago for a guide to British birds. Had they been published then, I believe they would have had considerable influence. Today, bird illustration has moved on, in the hands of artists such as Larsjonsson. But no artist can fail to learn from Reid-Henry's masterly handling of plumage and his drawing of birds' feet. The spirited pencil drawings are a delight—many being studies for figures in the plates. ROBERT G I I. I. M O R Atlas Hnizdniho Rozsifeni Ptaku V CSSR 1973/77. By Karel Stastny, Aladar Randik and Karel Hudec. Academia, Prague, 1987. 483 pages; 203 line-drawings; over 200 maps. £17.55. We have had a long wait for this book. The fieldwork for the Czechoslovakian breeding bird atlas project was carried out during 1973-77, and the maps and text completed not long thereafter. The manuscripts gathered dust, however, while they waited their turn in the queue for publication. The wait has been worthwhile! The ornithologist with no knowledge of Czech will nevertheless recognise the now-standard format of a breeding bird atlas: a page of text with a breakdown under possible, probable and confirmed breeding within each 10-km square (separately for the Czech Socialist Republic—Bohemia and Moravia—and the Slovak Socialist Republic—Slovakia). Of the total of 1,099 contributors, 913 were in the CSR and 186 in the SSR; this discrepancy has led to more thorough coverage in the western part of Czechoslovakia than in the east. This is reflected in the distribution maps (which take up the full page facing the text), and this needs to be taken into account when interpreting distributions. These full-page maps are oriented with north to the left (rather than the traditional north to the top), to accommodate the flattened shape of Czechoslovakia. The usual three sizes of dot are used in the maps, and the text pages are enlivened by line-drawings by Petr Rob. The achievement of the 1,000-odd ornithologists in completing this project in a country where fieldwork usually had to be carried out near each observer's home area, or as a result of using public transport (rather than private cars), is matched by that of the 135 136 Reviews organisers, whose dedication and persistence has produced for us a volume which all atlas-aficionados will wish to own. A total of 203 wild species (plus zoo-escape Ruddy Shelduck Tadorna ferruginea and introduced Reeves's Pheasant Syrmaticus reevesii) were proved to breed in Czechoslovakia during the survey years. With its key position in central-eastern Europe, a number of bird distributions reach the extremes in their range within Czechoslovakia, making this atlas an important contribution to European ornithology. The volume itself now takes its place alongside the other national atlases, as part of a vital historical record. Congratulations and thanks are due to all those concerned in its production. J. T. R. SHARROCK The Sparrows: a study of the genus Passer. By J. Denis Summers- Smith. Poyser, Calton, 1988. 342 pages; 8 colour plates; 62 line- drawings; over 100 maps and diagrams. £22.00. This attractive and scholarly monograph by an acknowledged authority covers 20 species in the genus Passer and is a major contribution to ornithology. Based upon an extensive assessment of the literature and a lifetime of field research (the author has seen all but one species), this book will certainly become the standard reference on the subject. Individual species accounts treat physical characteristics, distribution, breeding biology, feeding and other aspects of biology and behaviour and are complemented by a series of excellent colour plates by Robert Gillmor. Additional general-discussion chapters tackle trends and relationships within the group, its evolution and systematic position. Taxonomic issues receive extensive and detailed attention. The author's ideas make fascinating, if demanding, reading and will be influential. Numerous tables and maps show details of features such as the distribution of taxa, breeding seasons, biometric data, and range expansions. A book as authoritative as this is difficult to fault, but I may be allowed a few fairly trivial grumbles. Regarding details of distribution, I detect a certain lack of enquiry into the conventional wisdom of the travelling birding (as opposed to strictly ornithological) community. For example, the well-known occurrence of Desert Sparrow Passer simplex in southern Morocco has been overlooked; and the range of Arabian Golden Sparrow Passer (luteus) euchlorus is depicted on a distribution map as extending throughout the highlands of southwest Arabia, even east of the highland plateau of North Yemen, whereas I know of no evidence for this, the species being confined exclusively to the lowland Tihamah. Such minor inaccuracies are perhaps inevitable in a book which is almost global in scope, and they hardly detract from the fact that this is a magnificent achievement. Given the author's interest in the subject over the years, there cannot possibly be an equal on the subject for decades. There could be no better book to dispel the myth that sparrows are uninteresting. Ron MARTINS .
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