Winter reading about birds and birding
Ellen Paul (epaul@dclink.com)
Sun, 11 Oct 1998 12:15:09 -0400
As we head into the winter, and birding (and birding internet
discussions) enter a quieter, more contemplative phase, I'd like to
recommend some books I've read lately. (Confession: started to read;
sometimes I have 4 or 5 going at once).
There is no message or subtext behind these suggestions. I say that
because the first book I want to recommend is the one that prompted me
to suggest the re-naming of Dyke Marsh. Having been soundly chastised
for even having thought the thought, much less given voice to it, I
hearby officially withdraw my suggestion. That being said, I would like
to recommend Spring in Washington, by Louis Halle. It is published by
Johns Hopkins University Press and was in their most recent catalogue,
so it should still be available. I hope it brings as much enjoyment to
others as it has to me.
Second, and coincidentally from JHU Press as well, Discovering Birds by
Paul Lawrence Farber. It traces the development of ornithology as a
scientific discipline from 1760-1850. It can be a bit dry and
repetitive, but it is a good accounting of the era.
Next, The Bird Collectors, by Barbara and Richard Mearns. Academic
Press, 1998. Covers 1600-present, fascinating accounts of selected
individuals, and good reading.
Not so much reading as dreaming is the new book from Frith and Beehler
on the birds of paradise. Oxford University Press. Plates are just
incredibly beautiful.
PLEASE don't recommend any books to me. I've got no place to put them,
no time to read them, and no more money to spend on them.
Ellen
--
Ellen Paul Chevy Chase,MD mailto:epaul@dclink.com