This book was written by Sir Peter Scott who later became famous as a naturalist (Now, sadly, deceased I believe). The book tells the story of the actions fought by British MTBs and MGBs in the English Channel and North Sea during World War 2 with extensive accounts of actions. The book involves you both in the battles and the people and conveys the tenacity and bravery of this extraordinary group of men. It made such an impression on me when I read it at around the age of fourteen that I'm looking for it again twenty two years later.

Scott and company have done an excellent job profiling some of the world's most fascinating bird species in an innovative format. The World Atlas of Birds is divided into sections based on zoogeographic realm (the Nearctic Realm or North America, the Ethiopian Realm or Africa, and so forth, including all the continents as well as islands and the world's oceans). Within each major "continental section," there are further subdivisions based on habitat; for instance, in North America there are seperate page entries for the tundra, taiga and boreal forest, dry oak woodlands, chapparral, prairie grasslands, Everglades, and so forth, covering all major bird habitats, including urban and suburban. Within each page or two devoted to a particular habitat, two to around ten or so bird species are profiled, each illustrated and with several paragraphs devoted to range, taxonomy, ecological role, and other interesting natural history information. By no means are all bird species for a particular habitat listed or described, just a handful of interesting and representative birds.

The World Atlas of Birds is not a dry guidebook, but truly a show case of some of the more interesting bird species around the world, filled with neat information. Read how the Magpie Goose of Australia continues to confound ornithologists; is it a swan, goose, or duck, as it possesses traits of all three groups. Learn about Lichtenstein's Sandgrouse of the harsh deserts of Africa; to bring water back to chicks in the nest, the males soak their belly feathers in water and use them as a sponge to carry water back, sometimes as much as 15 to 20 times their weight in water. Discover the enormously successful Little Owl of Europe; though 90 percent of its diet is generally invertebrates, it can expand its diet to include small birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians, resulting in more than enough to eat and allowing as many as 20 breeding pairs to nest in as little as one square kilometer. Read about the Galapagos Hawk from the islands made famous by Darwin, tame enough to feed out of person's hand and known to hunt smaller birds like a falcon, catch insects like a nighjar in midflight, and feed on carrion like a vulture. Or the Poorwill of the American Southwest, one of the few birds which actually hibernate! Or the Oilbird of South America, a nocturnal cavedweller that hunts by echolocation at night!

In addition to profiles of fascinating birds from each region of the world, this book also has an introductory section discussing birds in general, such as their evolutionary history, feathers, how they fly, methods of landing, locomotion while on the ground, techniques of feeding, patterns of migration, courtship behavior and so forth, as well as a listing of some of the world's most endangered (or recently extinct) birds for the various continents and major island groups in the world. The book closes with a thorough multipage appendix, detailing every order and family of modern bird, including an illustration of a representative species, notes on habitat, nesting, feeding, food sources, social behavior, general physical characteristics for the group, range, and how many species comprise the order or family in question.

Truly this book is tremendous resource for anyone interested in birds, particulary the more fascinating facts about their life or about learning about birds from distant parts of the world. This book needs to be reprinted, it is too much a treasure not to.

I have been using this book as a pre-snorkel class teaching tool for 15 years - in its waterproof plastic version. (I am not sure that paperback version will last that long!). It has 98% of the fish snorkellers in Bermuda will see, with clear illustrations and brief but informative descriptive paragraphs on the opposite page. Fish colour is sometimes a tad off, but not enough to matter. It's only drawback is lack of inclusion of lobster, anemones, sea cucumbers, and that sort of thing.