This book set a high standard for the soon-to-be Falcoln series. The stunning photographs complement the confident text. Ladd's book has been a constant companion when I search out prairie remnants. A professional, consummate work that should find a place on every botanist's bookshelf.

I felt I should comment on one part of Rissa's review. She mentions that Queen Anne's lace is not in this book, and feels this is a detriment. On the contrary, this is one of the best features of the book: it contains only NATIVE plants, and not many of the invasive, non-native weeds, like Queen Anne's lace, which are very difficult to control in prairies.
If you don't see a common plant in this book, it's likely because it is an imported weed.
There are many, many "wildflower" identification books that include everything-and-the-kitchen-sink, adding to the common confusion about what a 'wildflower' is. (For instance, Dame's Rocket should be on the 'weed' list, but it's in most of the 'wildflower' mixes.)
If you are looking for an all-inclusive book, the Golden Press,"A Guide to Field Identification of Wildflowers of North America", ISBN 0-307-13664-7 is helpful because it includes the weeds, but tells where they came from and how far they have spread across North America. Of course the USDA's PLANTS website (plants.usda.gov) is the best internet source for this technical information.

Just as it is hard to look up the spelling of a word in the dictionary, until you know how it is spelled, it can be hard to identify a plant until you know what it is. This book of photographs of common prairie flowers, grouped by color, is pretty easy to flip through until you find the plant at hand. The caveat is that many 'pink' flowers are in the 'purple' section, but this is true of many flowers (few people really consider 'purple coneflower' to be purple.)
If you want just one field guide to get you started with these gorgeous plants, this is the one I would recommend.

...

Between 1910 and 1940, when Frank Buck, the big jungle man, did most of his work, cruelty toward wild animals was generally condoned in the name of "hunting" or "sport."

That his trademark motto, "Bring 'em back alive," made him famous, however, indicates that even in his day human consciousness was high enough to appreciate his respect for animals. Today this consciousness is so widespread that no one could become a hero of his stature by trapping jungle animals for profit.

But he understood animals and respected them, even displayed toward them the care of a mother for her child. When they were injured or sick, he personally tended them, a risky business. A 600-pound tapir he was treating almost killed him. A python saw him as a meal, and a cobra spewed deadly venom in his eyes. Attacked by another cobra, he threw his coat over the snake and pounced on it. He held it beneath him as it wriggled to get free until aides could get a grip on its head and pull it out, like a bird extracting a worm from the ground. The python that had him in its grip was one of the very few he had to kill. He managed to get one arm free enough to reach his sidearm; then he put three rounds in the giant reptile's brain.

From his headquarters at the Raffles Hotel in Singapore, he operated a collecting network that spanned the lush jungles of Malaya, Borneo, Sumatra and India. Over the years, he brought back hundreds of thousands of birds and animals of all kinds for sale to zoos, circuses and private collectors. In 1922, he provided Dallas with an entire zoo of more than 500 specimens. In 1948, he returned to his hometown of Gainesville, Texas, to dedicate the Frank Buck Zoo and the Frank Buck Zoological Society.

From Mr. Buck's eight books, Steven Lehrer has selected the "best" of the material. He has fine sensibilities as an editor. However, the books are so full of good, old-fashioned, movie-serial-type adventures in wild, exotic settings, that Mr. Lehrer could have closed his eyes and picked 19 chapters that would make a good collection. The surprising thing is that, until now, no one else has.

What few could have done better, however, is write the illuminating introduction summarizing Mr. Buck's early interest in animals and birds as a boy in Plano and along Turtle Creek, and his brief dalliance with crime, marriage and other enterprises before setting out on his lifelong search for "the source of the wind, the mouth of the river, the oceans to which the fish swam, and the far lands to which the birds flew."

Free-lance writer and reviewer Tom Dodge lives in Midlothian; his new book is Tom Dodge Talks About Texas.

November 2000, p 554 History of Science & Technology

38-1532 QL61 99-86898 CIP

Buck, Frank. Bring 'Em Back Alive: The Best of Frank Buck, ed. by Steven Lehrer. Texas Tech, 2000. 248p bibl index afp ISBN 0-89672-430-1, $28.95

In many ways, this is a delightful book. Buck was a familiar and heroic figure to many growing up in the 1930s and 1940s; the numerous illustrations recapture those days. The great zoos of the day owed much to him, partly for the specimens he obtained for them but even more for the publicity he generated and shared. His exploits could not and should not be repeated today, but that should not detract from the sense of adventure his stories evoke. His persona was mirrored in the white hunter in King Kong (the Fay Wray version), but his real life adventures were even more thrilling. The comments by Lehrer (Mount Sinai School of Medicine) are interesting and useful, and his choices of episodes from various of Buck's books are well done. All in all, this is an extremely entertaining book, illustrating a different time and written in a way that brings that time to life. General readers. -F W. Yow, emeritus, Kenyon College

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The author does and excptional job on cleaning up some of the objectionable language, and brings to the readers a truly enjoyable book on early "African safari" type activities. Something that young readers as well as old can enjoy.

Has 2 critical and unique features for each site -- GPS address (in addition to street address) and the accessibility for public viewing. Before this book, I've wasting much travel time trying to find sites and then finding them completely hidden from view.

As a practicing architect and architectural historian living in California, I have found this book to be an essential part to my research for projects designed by FLW. The photography is rich and alive. I have visited most of the buildings included in this book, the photography could not be more powerful. What else can be expected from such a talented author as Mr. Heinz? Another fine book by Mr. Heinz and cannot wait to see his upcoming book on Green and Green's Blacker House.

The reader from California must have the wrong book. There is no photo of a decorative detail of the Hollyhock House. I checked on the cities and found that some are noted differently than other texts but are accurate. One example is the Sturges House (page 49) listed in Los Angeles, most others list it in Brentwood. After the OJ trial, everyone now knows Brentwood is actually a neighborhood of Los Angeles. The photo of the Millard House (page 61) is printed backwards but the house is symmetrical and is still recognizable.

The book reveals a great deal of new, previously unpublished material that adds a great deal to our understanding of Wright's work such as the sections on San Francisco and Los Angeles that give locations and information of the clients or sites for buildings that are demolished to those only proposed. It helps to make the work more real and exciting.

The California reader must keep in mind that the purpose of this book is to assist all the Pilgrims making their way to every one of Wright's work. For that it is one of the greatest books available as Wright's work needs to be seen in person to be appreciated.

I am sure we are all eagerly awaiting the last of the series, The East!

When I picked up this book I did not know who Buddy Edelen was. This is right up there with the best running biographies I have read. If you love a good sports biography, whether you are a runner or not, pick this up. GREAT READ!

What I found so amazing in Frank Murphy's work is his lyrical skill that makes this non-fiction book read like a wonderful tale.

Historical accuracy and insightful exploration of personal determination give a clear psychological landscape of the kind of athlete that put long distance running on the map of today's sports.

A must read not only for long distance runners, but for poets as well.

This is about One of the premier runners in American history yet he is relatively unkown. He prefered the relative solitude and training methods that are now employed by the great Kenyan runners before anyone knew of Kenyan runners. This book is a highly motivational book for anyone training to run a serious marathon yet it would be good for a beginning runner also. Buddy Edelen was a class runner who didn't need drugs or "aids" to set a world record in 1963. I have personally read this book at least 10 times and will no doubt continue to read it.

I had searched dozens of places for literature that is both accurate and containing high quality photographs. Nothing comes closer to providing the information that this book contains! It has been a treasure trove for me in my quest for knowledge about the wonderful insects we call butterflies. It's an EXCELLENT book for both novice and expert alike. I give it 5 stars and two thumbs up!

As I write this review, there is a blizzard raging outside the bedroom. How pleasant it is to sit down and look at beautiful butterflies at such a moment!

Over 170,000 varieties of butterflies and moths have been identified. The author estimates that an equal number remain to be identified in the future. How can a simple pocket book hope to cope?

Mr. Carter has developed a solid concept for this helpful volume. He gives you a little bit of information about all the things that are most likely to be of interest. Then, as you become more knowledgeable, you can graduate to more extensive works and experiences.

The bulk of the book is a field guide to 5 butterfly and 22 moth families that are most common throughout the world. Over 600 color photographs are contained here. In this way, you have a decent chance of identifying whatever is flying in your garden during the good weather. Each species is beautifully illustrated with the wings outspread and a map showing where the species is usually found. Some species also have illustrations of both sides of the wings, caterpillars and other distinctive views.

Although moth varieties outnumber butterflies by about 9 to 1, the book wisely displays mostly butterflies. The moths chosen rival the butterflies for their wonderful designs and vibrant colorations.

For those with a casual interest in the subject, the beginning will be especially valuable. Here you can find out about the differences between butterflies and moths, the details of the life cyles of these insects, how to best observe them, and tips for building a garden that will attract the largest possible population. I thought that last information was most worthwhile.

At the end of the book are listed some of the many gardens you can visit that are populated by collections of living butterflies. I have found those to be remarkably good fun, and very relaxing. You have to slow down to enjoy butterflies. It's good for each of us to move at butterfly speed more often.

The current edition was published in 2000, and contains corrections to the original 1992 edition so be sure to get this second edition.

After you have finished enjoying this beautiful visit to nature's paintbrush and invention workshop, I suggest that you consider how else you can enjoy studying nature. For example, have you ever looked at flowers with a high-power magnifying glass? Like butterflies, they look quite different (and more wonderful) when you can see more details.

Overcome your stalled thinking that you have to wait for a butterfly to cross your path before you can enjoy one!

IF YOU LIKE BUTTERFLIES AND/OR MOTHS THIS GUIDE WILL MAKE YOU GO HOG WILD AND PIG CRAZY!

I'm not sure why, but this book just completely captured my imagination and ran with it. This is one of m favorite books of all time. What I really love, though, is the copy I read was a musty old tome, probably printed in the 30s or 40s, from my library, that just had the mosr wonderful smell and the comfortable, dusty feel. If at all possible, read a copy like that.

What would the Old West have been without the Mustang? Frank Dobie regales the reader with tales ranging from the legendary Pacing White Mustang to more obscure but nonetheless fascinating legends such as Blue Streak and Starface, to insight into the mysterious origins of the breed.

I read this book for the first time years ago, and I still can't get enough of it! This book is must-read for any horse lover or Wild West enthusiast!

Dobie tells the story of the impact that the introduction of the horse had on life in the Americas, with an emphasis on the American West. His historical research is good, citing a number of written sources (and even giving new perspective on Fremont or Pike).

But the real color of the book comes from his anecdotes, many of which come from discussions with cowboys and mustangers who lived through the final days of the open range in the American West. Great color, great stories throughout!

Highly entertaining, yet with good research and historical value. Wonderful insight into the character of horses.

Fascinating personal day-by-day account of the journey of Lewis and Clark through the Louisiana Territory. As you read, you feel yourself slowly seeing the American west as it was seen by those who first wrote of its magnificence, the customs of the natives, the wildlife, and climate. You see it for what it was, and for its possibilities. This edition has been edited from the individual journals of both Lewis and Clark and some of the others. It has been made more compact by putting in only passages that tell the story, but with no sentence restructuring or spelling corrections. Sometimes this requires you to figure the meaning out, but is never a big problem. The chapter length was perfect for reading a chapter a day which means 33 days. The only bad chapter was 31, which was a summary of one leg lifted from DeVoto's The Course of Empire, which I felt was harder to understand than the journals. The appendix includes Jefferson's Instructions, list of personnel, and specimens returned.

This is an excellent book. It is hard to imagine the hardship these men had to endure on their trip across the nation, but by reading this book you get some kind of idea. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is even slightly intrested in the history of the Lewis and Clark expedition. This book tells it exactly how it happened, from the men who were there. I strongly believe that books like these should be required reading in schools....who knows what this country would be like today had it not been for those brave men.

There is not much new that I can add which has not already been said of the Journals. Simply put, fantastic! I have read some excellent books regarding the Lewis and Clark Expedition, but reading the actual journals themselves makes one feel as though they are right there alongside them. Names such as John Colter, the Fields brothers, George Drouillard, Peter Cruzatte, Touissant Charbonneau and his wife Sacajawea, John Ordway, George Shannon, and many of the others in the journal become so familiar, it's as if the reader is a "fly on the saddle" (so to speak) during the entire expedition. Every chapter, every leg of the journey, has something relating to the hardships, sacrifices, conjectures, speculations, survival strategies, Indian confrontations and appropriate manners of behavior, along with wonderful descriptions of landforms, Indian culture, animals, plants, climate, etc. A truly gripping, meaningful look at early western U.S. exploration. DeVoto's introduction and editing is extremely well done.

Just back from 2 week guided tour to Costa Rica. This was a tour featured as "Nature's Museum" and led by a trained biologist that was good on bird ID, though his time was demanded more for logistics and keeping everyone of our 26 tourists happy by hitting the majors such as monkeys, butterflys, and birds like Quetzels, Motmots, and Toucans. I found the Stiles and Skutch guide to be most helpful. Recommend that a new user, read all of the general information just prior to a visit to the country. Also read in advance, the descriptions of bird families and look thru the plates to get a feel for birds you might see. Then when in the field, you can easily scan the plates, and check out the narrative descriptions, including their habits and ranges. Though this was not a bird trip, we did pick up 150 species that we felt comfortable on ID and perhaps a dozen unknowns mostly because of only flighting glimpes. About half were first called out by the local guides and the others by ourselves with help of the book. I find this book's info. on bird ranges to be most useful especially for neotropical migrants for which our North American guides generally ignore wintering areas south of US. One note of caution, is that the color plates aren't always perfect, for instance the tree swallow is too green, the palm tanager a bit too drab, and variants are not shown. Looks like there is room for a next generation "Sibleyian" guide to birds in central America.

If you have a more casual interest in birds, you may be more happy with "A Pocket Wildlife Guide" for Costa Rica, published by Rainforests Pub.,... commonly available locally in Costa Rica. It has nice color plates of common birds, butterflys, reptiles, and mammals.

Even though not all the birds were pictured on the plates in the book, I didn't run into any birds that were missed. The plates were generally of an acceptable quality and the write-up on each species was excellent. It was about time Costa Rica, a birding mecca for all serious birders, had its own field guide. The book was great and Costa Rica was even better! Together, they were excellent. One suggestion would have been to have a simple code with the plates to indicate which of the species (flycatchers in particular) were likely to occur only in one particular location (ie) upper Pacific Slope. With the help of the tour guides, this book was excellent.

A great field guide! After 8 days, my guide was well worn. The "human type" guides that we went birding with on two occasions used the same field guide. They would tell me what plate to go to, from memory, to find the birds we were viewing. My husband, a novice birder, ID'd as many birds as I did using this book. The printed information on the birds was excellent also, as it clinched several ID's.

An intimate telling of family and loss, courage and humor, honest confrontations with mortality, a deeply spiritual tone, and chapter titles introducing us to over thirty different birds, this beautifully descriptive and authentic tale leaves us with tears and a search for binoculars and a bird guidebook. Terry Tempest Williams weaves with great detail the heart breaking and life affirming events of the simultaneous devastation of her mother's body and the migratory bird sanctuary that has been her refuge. She skillfully keeps from dramatizing this innately powerful story. Williams had me deeply attached to pages I knew would be increasingly painful to read. Yet, as it became more painful, I would never describe it as depressing. I am struck by the powerful way she honors her mother, their family's reverent yet human journey through a particularly virulent cancer, and the ultimate power of nature, and equally important, humanity's thoughtless interference with nature, to turn one's life into a personal desert that used to be called home. She is a master storyteller and a poweful activist. This must read challenges the reader to enter a world where solutions are not simple, and life is exposed at its most vulnerable while courage and passion abound.

As the Great Salt Lake rose to submerge and destroy the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, grief rose and submerged Terry Tempest William's spirit with the destruction of her mother and grandmother by cancer. The gradual regeneration of the Refuge with the subsiding of the lake parallels the regeneration of her spirit and the subsiding of her grief. But the pain and the scars remain and transform. Terry is no longer an accepting trusting Mormon daughter but a searching questioning activist after her tumultuous emotional experience. One wonders if the gifts of awareness and sensitivity are worth the price of the pain endured. The Refuge becomes a sanctuary for the returning birds and Terry's returning spirit. No more moving piece has been written about the folly and ultimate tragedy of human intervention in the environment. From the nuclear testing of the 1950s to the manipulation of the level of the Great Salt Lake, there is much to learn about the long term consquences of our short sighted acts. Everyone should read and reread and pass on this book.

Now that I have read Terry Tempest Williams' excellent book on finding refuge in the areas around the Great Salt Lake, I find I want to visit, to see for myself the stunning landscape and myriad of birdlife. I also find myself drawn to this courageous woman who lets us into this difficult part of her life, as her mother passes into the shadow of cancer. Not for the first time, we learn, and not such a rare occurrence in her family, we discover; a discovery that, for me, evoked anger at the unfairness of exposing human beings to atomic bomb test fallout. There is so much in this book: the detailed descriptions of the birds and their habits, the extraordinary unfolding of the progression of cancer and its effect on the family, the interplay of three women -- grandmother, mother, daughter -- and through it all, the gentle and exquisite writing carried me nearly effortlessly, yet with great strength. I can find no fault with the writing, the evocative images, the revelation of relationships, and the treatment of this undoubtedly amazing place. Thank you, Terry, for writing this book.

This is without a doubt the primary resource for falconers across North America and quite possibly the world. It is an invaluable reference towards attaining a falconry license, trapping, training and caring for a bird. Howerver it is printed by a small independent outfit that quite often has trouble keeping up with demand, and the book is in serious need of an editor, as it abounds with spelling and grammatical errors.

The most recent edition of this book is the 8th edition ISBN # 068566290x printed in 2000. All the major book retailers do not list this as even being in print although it most certainly is. It can easily be found through catalogs from falconry retailers.

Frank Beebe's North American Falconry and Hunting Hawks is a wonderful guide to caring for a bird, feeding it,training it, and hunting with it. It has extensive patterns for hoods and other equipment used in the sport.