This book is awesome! If you love hummingbirds, you'll love this book!!! Hi gloss pages are *extra* nice. You'll like it.

I have been looking for a copy of this book for a very long time...its a wonderful book and very well illustrated. Would like information on how I may find a copy.

As many may know, John Gould(with the help of many) produced 418 hand coloured stone lithograph plates for his Monograph of the Hummingbirds which took 12 years to produce(1849-61). An original set sold recently for 1/4million dollars! At approx $100, this book gives a great deal of art bang for the buck! Albeit, the format is smaller and the exquisite hand coloring is lost to modern printing reproduction, it's a joy to own. Individual original plates are available at antique print shops($700-$2000 ea) and this book is your excellent reference for an contemplated purchase.

A terrific book for all types of nature-loving readers. If you like pictures, they're here. If you want the best information available about African Wild Dogs and efforts to save them, it's definitely here. All people who are fascinated by wild animals will find this book to be a treasure. The photography is beautiful...It's the next best thing to being there. Leave this book on your coffee table and I guarantee that every guest will pick it up.

These animals truly are in trouble. McNutt does a good job explaining exactly why these dogs are endangered (or should be classified as such).

Like most books published under Smithsonian, this one is a keeper.

Hi, I'm an OAC biology student (that's grade 13 in Ontario) who is doing my ISP on African wild dogs. This is the best book I have ever found on wild dogs and probably the best ever written. I could not believe my luck when I found it. It is an excellent, coffee-table-type book with lots of beautiful pictures that you would like even if you were not specially interested in wild dogs. You will be surprised at how similar the dogs look in the pictures to your own dog.

Are you fascinated by wolves? Do you dream of going on safari in Africa? If you answer yes to either question then this book will be of interest to you.

I had the good luck to see a pack of 10 wild dogs while on safari in Botswana in September of 1998. Being a wolf enthusiast, I was very interested in the similarities and differences between the American grey wolf and the African wild dog. This book was in the library of each safari camp I stayed in so I had the pleasure of studying about the wild dogs while in their native habitat. As you'll learn from this book, wild dogs are extremely social, even more so than grey wolves, and very efficient, successful predators.

The photographs in this book are fantastic and the text is well written, well organized, and aimed at the general public rather than the scientific community.

The author continues his African wild dog research in Botswana. The fate of these fascinating predators is very precarious due to their small population and the relentless persecution by people, similar to that experienced by the grey wolf in America earlier this century.

I'm not a kid. But this book about endangered birds, and the practices by humans that are behind it, is an engaging and interesting read for parents also. Buy it, and read it with your kids.

I learned that if there is something really great in the world you should not destroy it. Other kids should read this book because it has great expressions and it's a fun book to read...S.S. (age 8)

What the Parrot Told Alice can be read by young children (age 8-10) as an early-reader chapter book and by older children (through middle school) as an environmental learning tool. The story is well-written with excellent characters that all children love. And it combines good reading with scientific learning - just perfect for elementary and middle school children...The Science Spiders(TM) Newsletter.

When Mandy and James are playing near the pond they find a duck nest, but only one egg is still warm which means that one is still alive. Mandy decides to try to hatch the duckling and make a diary/journal about everyday with the duckling, which she names Dillon.

This is an excellent book for readers 10 and under.

In this book, Duckling Diary, Dillon the duck gets lost but is found. I like the part when every one was happy to see Dillon, like this:" Mandy went shopping and Dillon got out of his cage and went in the green-house. Mandy got back and Dillon was gone. She searched, and searched. Mrs. Todd was right, everyone was pleased to see Dillon home at last. And Mandy was right too. Dillon was the most famous duck in Wellford", and that was my favorite part.

This is a wonderful book about a young girl (Mandy) and a duckling (Dillon) she raised from birth. I found the content of the book excellent for young readers.

A Field Guide to the Birds of China is a must for any traveler who wants to identify birds in China. De Schauensee's earlier Birds of China is not really a field guide although it provides useful background reading. A Field Guide to the Birds of Japan includes a lot of the species occurring in eastern China, and the Beijing area is included in most of the range maps, so if you don't have the MacKinnon-Phillips new guide, this is second best.

All species of known regular occurrence somewhere in China are illustrated in excellent drawings by Karen Phillips, all but a few in full color. Colored range maps are on the page facing each of the 128 plates. The text for each species provides a detailed description, voice, distribution and status, habits (useful), and in some cases a note on taxonomy.

I used this book for more than two weeks in China during October 2001 and confidently identified every bird I got a decent look at. (Regrettably, eastern China is not exactly overrun with exotic birds, but you can find some interesting species even in the cities.)

The most noticeable problem with this book is its sheer bulk; at 256 pages of plates, 586 pages of text, and some front material, this monster tops out at well over 800 pages and won't fit in most fanny packs, not to mention pockets. So taking a utility knife with a new blade, I sliced the spine following the last plate and taped the last page to the spine, creating a book of front matter, 10 pages of introduction and all the plates and range maps--a tad over a third the thickness of the whole book. A few species are illustrated in black-and-white in the text, so I xeroxed those (with their black-and-white range maps) and pasted them below the range maps of appropriate plates. I left the text home.

The book is not without minor errors, of course. For example, the range maps on plate 35 mistakenly call the Red Phalarope the Red-necked Phalarope, with the same error in the scientific name (although, curiously, the Chinese name appears to be correct). Both species are illustrated. On plate 56 the illustration of the Red-throated Loon is mistakenly marked with the species number of the Common Loon (which is also illustrated and correctly numbered on the same plate). On plate 72 the female Japanese Paradise-flycatcher is so marked but the symbol for the male is missing. Most users can figure out such slips.

...

This book is absolutely essential for any birder who plans to visit any of the regions covered in this guide. The plates are very good and the descriptions are detailed. This is probably the most up-to-date guide for the region. The taxonomy is based on Sibley and Monroe, and nearly all subspecies and their ranges are listed. There is even an edition in simplified Chinese available in China and Hong Kong. However, covering such a broad region has its drawbacks, and at least in Taiwan, I recommend that this book be used more as a reference than field guide. A bird's voice often varies across its range, and the status of a species in one location can be completely different in another. For example, the White-bellied Green Pigeon, described by the book as "very rare," is in fact common in Taiwan. The quality of the plates is sometimes inconsistent (e.g. the geese and swans on plate 7 look very small!). Also, errors I've noticed include where the range map does not correspond with the descriptions (e.g. Eurasian Jay, plate 67), the bird number on the plate does not correspond with that of the range map and descriptions (e.g. Varied Tit, plate 88), and some typos (e.g. Pygmy Wren Babbler subspecies, plate 105). Although Appendix 2 lists the species endemic to the region, it left out at least three species from Taiwan (Yellow Tit, Collared Bush Robin, and Taiwan Whistling Thrush). In general, this book is excellent and highly recommended, but I do hope a new edition will be published in the future that fixes the errors and include new discoveries made since publication (e.g. Chinese Crested Tern, Taiwan Bush Warbler).

This field guide is a well done book introducing the birds of China to its readers. It is fairly standard as far as field guides goes in content. The book contains 128 color plates depicting the birds of China with the corresponding range maps opposite the plates. Next, the descriptions of the 1329 species are given. Herein lies the major problem with the book, the descriptions are not adjacent to the plates; however, had the book been arranged in this manner, the number of pages would have at least doubled and the book is already a bit cumbersome for use as a field guide at its present size.

A couple of other bits of useful information in this book include a map detailing vegetation type and an introduction to the region. Also, a list of protected and endangered species is included. For researchers, a nice bibliography is also included. Whether you just want to look at birds from a country you never plan on going to, or if you intend to go birding in China, this book is for you.

This book represents a revision and extension of Ms. Low's earlier work, An Index and Guide to Audubon's Birds of America (Abbeville, 1988). It is a valuable reference for anyone interested in Audubon's folio bird prints. If you have a choice, select this more recent version than the out-of-print Abbeville edition. As in her earlier book, Ms. Low includes sizes of the plate marks for Havell Edition prints, and adds more information on the variants she encountered in a systematic review of four complete Havell Edition sets. The book also includes a wonderful bonus -- a detailed description of the Bien Edition (sometimes called the second folio edition of The Birds of America). Ms. Low's treatment is by far the most comprehensive information available in one place on this important and neglected work. As an Audubon dealer, and someone who has prepared web-based study guides of all the major Audubon editions, I have found endless uses for this book. It is a must-have reference for all serious students and collectors of Audubon's art.

Susanne Low conducted years of painstaking research to write this lovely book. She examined four complete 435-print sets of Audubon's double elephant folio and this detailed, comprehensive Guide is the result. Every variant of every print is described including the birds depicted, the exact size of the plate mark, and where and when Audubon painted the original. A similar section describes the 150 Bien edition chromolithographs that were made in 1858-1860. The information presented is invaluable to antique dealers and collectors because it enables even the casual user to authenticate prints.

I especially like her cross-references and cross-indexes that make it easy to compare the double elephant folio prints with the Biens and the Octavos. She even included a biographical section that describes all the people who helped Audubon along the way. Writing my own book - Audubon Art Prints - would not have been possible without using Susanne's book as a reference.

Low's index has long been the bible for dealers and collectors of Audubon's Birds of America. Painstakingly accurate in its original edition, this new, updated and expanded version is produced with all the care of true booklovers. Elegant and useful. Thanks to Reese and Heald for making this invaluable tome available.

Loaded with interesting and unusual information about birds, this is a wonderful book for busy birders. It can be read from beginning to end (A to Z) or opened to any page; read for two minutes or an hour; and you will never lose your place! It will make a wonderful gift for your bird watching friends.

The enthusiasm of EH Stickney's writing is infectious. Her book is extremely readable, and is sure to put many a smile on your face as you peruse her entries on the common and not-so-common of our feathered friends. "A Little Bird" is an excellent compendium of fact and folklore that readily distills for the reader those tidbits that are likely to be of most interest. While packed with information, it is not a book that will bog you down. It opened new windows for me (someone who's been interested in birds all his life), but it also would be an excellent way to introduce inquisitive young minds to the world of ornithology. I recommend it highly.

Very informative and interesting history and mythology of the bird world

The beautiful writing in "Love of the Hunt," does for me what the writing of my long-time favorite outdoor author, Sigurd Olson does. Olson wrote extensively of his times in "The Boundary Waters" of Minnesota and Canada and pulled me North with him on many a cold winter night of reading. John Winsor does that. He takes me on his "magic carpet" to feel with him in his adventures in the West and Artic, his unique sense of nature as a spiritual quest. The chapter, "Eulogy for a Bear" captures all the book. If you can read this chapter without tears, you're a better man than I am. Buy and read this one...and give it as a gift to your special friends.

The author has written a series of short stories that use the hunt as a metaphor for looking for meaning in life. He succeeded in making me laugh out loud, shed some tears, and think about the meaning of my own life. What more can one ask from a book or a storyteller? Along the way he upsets some prejudicial and stereotypical views of hunting and hunters--reinforces a few as well. Altogether a good read.

This book is for all people who love the wilderness. I laughed and I cried. I found this book to be extremely insightful about one mans draw to the wilderness and the animals that reside in it. Not being a hunter myself I learned the authors profound respect for the creatures that he hunted and gave my new insight on hunting. I highly recommend this book for all lovers of the out doors.

I wasn't sure what to expect with this anthology, but I found myself enthralled from beginning to end. Nnedi Okorafor's "Crossroads", Seth Lindberg's "Atropos", and James Dorr's "Madness" were special delights.

A great mix of chilling, horrifying, and otherwise entertaining stories.

This is a great compilation of magic, madness, culture and creativity. All of the stories were pretty satisfying, some of them terrifying! There are some writers here that are going to go places. Watch for the authors of the two longest pieces, Nnedi Okorafor (her story is called Crossroads) and James S. Dorr (he wrote a story called Madness).

I have owned a copy of these books since I first heard them reviewed on NPR. I still laugh every time I pull them from the shelf. Excellent gifts for your naturalist friends and others!!

This spoof of field guides really shows the wit and ingenuity of its creators. You'll laugh through the entire guide.