New and forthcoming books that are worthy of attention but that have not yet been fully reviewed.
Two new books on natural history subjects are being released this week from Princeton University Press: The Amazing World of Flyingfish by Steve N. G. Howell, and A Sparrowhawk’s Lament: How British Breeding Birds of Prey Are Faring by David Cobham with Bruce Pearson and a foreword by Chris Packham.
Fascinating as the 1,300-odd species of sharks, skates, rays, and chimaeras are, they are still unfortunately among the most popularly misunderstood creatures on the planet. Television and movies, far from harnessing those powerful media’s immense communicative power to help alleviate this problem generally only make it worse.
From a footnote to the article “Homage to Santa Rosalia or Why Are There So Many Kinds of Animals?” by G. E. Hutchinson as published May-June, 1959 edition of The American Naturalist:
Since the amateur practice of oology became widely illegal, most bird watchers and amateur naturalists never become particularly familiar with the many fascinating things about bird eggs.