Surpassing 900 pages as it does in order to contain the “more than 800 species” of birds presented in its species profiles, “Birds of North America” is a much weightier tome than its series sibling, “Trees of North America.” Not surprisingly, it is not by any means a field guide but rather a reference guide – a role it can be expected to play reasonably well for general readers who would like an attractive, extensively illustrated reference guide around the house.
While the National Audubon Society has a long and justly respected name in the world of natural history books, the history of these books themselves has been a bit – shall we say – “up and down.” Those sufficiently long in the tooth (such as myself) may well remember the well-crafted volumes by such authoritative authors as Richard Pough, with their well-wrought and thorough yet never prolix text, finely detailed black & white illustrations, and in later editions even central color plate sections. Then of course, there was that later series…
For the number of species within the category deemed to be of conservation concern, the amount of attention paid – particularly by the general public – to the world’s freshwater fishes is breathtakingly small. Unless a species is of interest to the sporting community or aquarist hobbyists, is introduced to a new area where it is identified as a threat to the native species or deemed a nuisance to the local humans, or its existence in a particular geographic location involves it in a legal dispute, the outcome of which could ensure or prevent a large corporation from increasing its profits, one rarely hears or reads much news pertaining to the planet’s freshwater fish species.
J. Reese Voshell, Jr.’s A Guide to Common Freshwater Invertebrates of North America isn’t exactly a new book. Originally published in 2002 and ever since being one of the most popular books available from its publisher, McDonald & Woodward, it is one of those books that anyone who knowns anything about the subject, knows that they […]