Natural History Books

Book SynopsisThough we might not be able to see microbes, the consequences of their activities are readily apparent to our unaided senses. This book shows us how to examine, study, and appreciate microbes in the manner of a birdwatcher, by making sightings of microbial activities and thereby identifying particular microbes and understanding their behavior.Trade ReviewMarch of the Microbes is an impressive, entertaining tour of life's invisible realm. Combining history with new scientific discoveries, John Ingraham shows how microbes make their presence felt everywhere. You just have to know how to look for it. After reading this book, you will. -- Carl Zimmer, author of Microcosm: E. coli and the New Science of LifeTraverse the eclectic landscapes of soil, champagne, a Yellowstone spring, Italian salad dressing, and even the human stomach with microbiologist John L. Ingraham as your guide. This remarkable tour will transform novices into keen microbe-watchers in a mere 300 pages--which sounds like a lot, until you realize how much ground there is to cover in humanity's relationship with our most minuscule "friends." For instance, it was microbes that transformed the entire face of our planet, via the "Oxygen Revolution" some 3 billion years ago. We have them to thank for literally every breath we take. This is but one example. With the Earth estimated to have a nonillion (that's one followed by 30 zeros) microbes in and around it, we might as well get to know our tiny neighbors. * Seed *From the mundane (a smelly fish, a child with earache) to the exotic (hydrothermal vents), Ingraham presents the microbes behind so much of the world around us. He drives home the point that without these overlooked life forms we wouldn't be here at all...Ingraham's fresh perspective makes it an engaging read. -- Jo Marchant * New Scientist *Though most people are only familiar with microbes that cause disease (germs, etc.), those "felonious" microbes actually constitute a tiny percent of all microbes, and just a single chapter in this fascinating survey of single-celled organisms and their role in shaping life on Earth...Among other processes, Ingraham explains how vaccines have been developed, frequently with the aid of other microbes; the carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur cycles which make life possible; and how microbes give us cheese, wine, and other foodstuffs (though some, like xanthan gum, readers may not want to know about). Ingraham also discusses recently-discovered microbes inhabiting extreme environments (hot, cold, salty, etc.) that promise to tell us much about the evolution of life on Earth and what life on other planets might look like. Ingraham's entertaining, breezy style makes even difficult topics accessible, and every chapter contains intriguing anecdotes about microbes in history (did the CIA try to poison Castro's cigars with botulinum toxin?). Highly readable, engrossing, and endlessly informative, this is a standout example of science writing for general audiences. * Publishers Weekly online (starred review) *In this engaging treatment, the microbiologist shows readers the invisible world through observations about its macroscopic manifestations in a range of environments, from the kitchen to the abyss of the sea...Ingraham describes some of their malicious cousins who blight crops, kill trees, and sicken humans. Ingraham's clarity, plus touches of humor, augments the appeal of this fine contribution to popularizing science. -- Gilbert Taylor * Booklist *John Ingraham has written the definitive field guide for microbe watching, a branch of natural history that, to the uninitiated, might seem oxymoronic. Microorganisms being, by definition, creatures too small to be seen by the unaided eye, one might wonder...why anyone would need a guide to seeing the unseeable. Read just a few pages, however, and the puzzle is solved. Sure, microbes are tiny, but they are so prolific that their effects on the world are both profound and highly visible--from the black mold on bathroom walls to the red tide that sporadically discolors and poisons long expanses of shoreline...He blends the deep knowledge of an academic with the passion of a microbe watcher extraordinaire--which makes this guide as entertaining as it is informative. -- Laurence A. Marschall * Natural History *Table of Contents* Foreword * The Microbial Landscape * Just Acquiring Metabolic Energy * Food and Drink * Living Together * Cycling Nitrogen * Cycling Sulfur * Cycling Carbon * Hostile Environments * Fungi, Hostile and Benign * Viruses * Felonious Bacteria * Shapers of Weather, Geology, and the Environment * Closer to Us * Survivors * Notes * Glossary * Index

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Book SynopsisIn The Fire Ants, Walter Tschinkel provides not just an encyclopedic overview of Solenopsis invicta but a lively account of how research is done, how science establishes facts, and the pleasures and problems of a scientific career. The reader learns much about ants, the practice of science, and humans' role in the fire ant's North American success.Trade ReviewThis is a wonderful book, comprehensive in its coverage of fire ant social biology, extraordinarily lucid in its description of complex topics, and beautifully synthetic in tying together the many disparate threads of evidence relevant to the discussion of each topic. The prose is concise and compact, but the wit and humor of the author penetrate even the most tedious technical parts to lighten up the text and make it a pleasure to read. The book is laced with insightful and humorous interludes that detail the tools and personalities involved in fire ant research, and covers the major topics likely to be of interest to evolutionary biologists and ecologists who study social animals, especially social insects. The Fire Ants is certain to be widely read. -- Kenneth Ross, Professor of Entomology, University of GeorgiaThis book is without parallel as a thorough description of the biology of an important social insect. There are books on particular problems of social insect biology, and of course the landmark volume by Hölldobler and Wilson treats all ant biology. The Fire Ants stands out for its focus on a single species, covering the entire range of an enormous literature. It will therefore be of interest to specialists and to a more general audience who wish to learn about what is important in the ant world. -- Joan Herbers, Dean of Biological Sciences, Department of Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology, The Ohio State UniversityI have been reading bits and pieces of the book, dipping in here and there like a chimpanzee with a twig, fishing for ants, and each time I have come up with something tasty and nutritious...My favorite ["Interlude"], an economical two-page essay called "The Porter Wedge Micrometer: Mental Health for Myrmecologists," ought to be required reading for any scientist who wants to write for the public...This brief essay is entertaining and significant, a real glimpse of what science is and how it is done by human beings, rational and un-, grappling with technique, nature and the gathering of information. This is what the public needs to know about science, not just the results presented in the driest form possible. -- James Gorman * New York Times *This book is a masterly and detailed account of some of nature's greatest opportunists, the fire ants. It deals with their phylogeny, biogeography, social organization, parasites, and foraging behavior, together with their impacts on natural ecosystems and agriculture. Walter Tschinkel's holistic approach embraces topics at the molecular level and relates them to the colony and its organization. Tschinkel has researched these ants for thirty-five years at Florida State University, Tallahassee. He and several generations of his postgraduate students have been one of the major driving forces in fire-ant studies. This body of work required the mastery of finely tuned laboratory techniques in analytical chemistry, a detailed understanding of the natural history of the ants, extended periods of uncomfortable fieldwork and getting badly stung...Tschinkel's love of and fascination with the ants shines through the often highly technical aspects of The Fire Ants. He writes with great clarity and his book should appeal to the general reader, as much as the specialist. It is well illustrated with graphs, tables, and excellent photographs. -- Christopher O'Toole * Times Literary Supplement *

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Book SynopsisThe unique relationship between dogs and humans has had huge evolutionary consequences, changing the physical, behavioral, genetic, and emotional characteristics of both species. Pat Shipman looks to fossil records and new evidence to trace how the process of domestication worked and discovers how much of ourselves we owe to our canine companions.Trade ReviewThis book is a great read for anyone interested in dogs but is overall of a high enough quality for scholars to enjoy. Shipman explores the genetic, behavioral, and archaeological studies revealing the development of the companion relationship between people and dogs, and brings the human and canid settlement of the Australian region into a global context. -- Susan O’Connor, author of Transcending the Culture–Nature Divide in Cultural HeritageWhen, where, and how did the partnership between dogs and humans begin? Was it an accident? Was it inevitable? Where would we human beings be without our canine colleagues? Pat Shipman’s Our Oldest Companions is a must-read, a tour de force drawing together under one proverbial roof what science can tell us to date. A follow-up to her provocative and intriguing The Invaders, Dr. Shipman examines the anthropology and archeology of the dog’s transition from wolf to house pet all over the world, from the Australian Outback to north of the Arctic Circle. You’ll want to read this book three, four, even five times in order to absorb the abundance of research and ideas presented here. -- Wendy Williams, author of The Horse: The Epic History of Our Noble CompanionThe latest in a string of authoritative and readable books by Pat Shipman benefits from her well-known scientific knowledge and her great storytelling ability. One of the first times anyone has told how the evidence from archaeology and DNA of Sahul, with its late-appearing dingoes and singing dogs, adds to the human story rather than seeming anomalous. It is the perfect complement to other accounts written with a bias towards Africa, Asia, or Europe. This book, like the dogs that are at its center, covers all the continents where modern people have lived with them. Read it. You will enjoy it. -- Iain Davidson, author of Making Scenes: Global Perspectives on Scenes in Rock Art[A] lively tale of dog domestication and migration. -- Josie Glausiusz * Nature *The erudite Our Oldest Companions makes a remarkable story out of the long partnership between humans and dogs. * Foreword Reviews *A fascinating and often surprising exploration of human and canine evolution…[Shipman’s] captivating prose will enchant all readers seeking to learn more about humans, dogs, and our long history together. -- Adrienne Krone * Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture *

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Book SynopsisThe unparalleled success of insects is the story told in this highly entertaining book. How do these often tiny but indefatigable creatures do it? Gilbert Waldbauer pursues this question from hot springs and Himalayan slopes to roadsides and forests, scrutinizing insect life in its many manifestations.Trade Review[Waldbauer's] style is lively and light, and he manages to explain scientific evidence behind the ideas he presents without lapsing into jargon. His passages describing insect life can be poetic...The book delivers a sophisticated view of ecology, evolution and animal behavior...Sure, Insects through the Seasons has more sex and violence than prime-time TV, but this is the real birds and the bees, and Waldbauer tells it like it is. -- Faye Flam * Philadelphia Inquirer *Insects through the Seasons...is a joyous romp through amazing-but-true natural history stories of what makes insects tick...Waldbauer's clear prose is full of fascinating detail, and it is a pleasure to read. His enthusiasm for his subject comes through loud and clear, a vital ingredient for interesting readers in what he has to say...Even for the professional entomologist, there is plenty that may well be new. There are vignettes here to delight any reader, including a great deal from Waldbauer's research naturally. -- Francis Gilbert * New Scientist *Insects through the Seasons is chock-a-block with insect facts, anecdotes and good, old-fashioned natural history...There are chapters on courtship, caring for offspring and finding food, which Waldbauer manages to keep fresh by resisting the use of well-trodden examples. There are also more unusual chapters on, for example, insects' use of silk and the problems faced (and solved) by parasitic insects. Throughout, Waldbauer places his insects in the wider context of the natural world as a whole...[An] inspirational book. -- Stuart Blackman * BBC Wildlife *Mr. Waldbauer...knows his bugs and is a masterful storyteller as well. His protagonist is the cecropia moth, common nocturnal insect of the Midwest. He follows it through its life cycle, digressing frequently...The many stories of the `most successful animals on earth' are fascinating...Mr. Waldbauer's entertaining tales of insect behavior gracefully illustrate contemporary evolutionary biology theory...Without insects or with a drastic decrease in their activity, the world as we know it would cease. Mr. Waldbauer's story of the gentle cecropia moth goes far toward explaining why. * Washington Times *A natural-history treasury, this elegantly illustrated volume traces the life cycles of numerous insect species by describing their methods of courtship, mating, raising young, self-defense, recognizing and eating food, and surviving seasonal changes. * Booklist *[A] thoroughly gratifying survey of that most successful animal group...Starting with the optimistic swarm of spring, Waldbauer paints the landscape of each season, filling it with every manner of creature (though insects take center stage) and describing their evolutionary talents...He never has to stretch for the fantastic or sensational example, for the insect world is one long, strange parade of curiosities: critters with ears on their legs, teeth on their genitals, the smell of carbona on their breath. Waldbauer gives the scoop on the tricks of a dead leaf butterfly, cracks the code of the cricket's chirp, tends bar for a boozing moth, shares the satin bowerbird's obsession with the color blue. In the process, he puts the entire ecological picture in context...Waldbauer's wisdom is served up like a tantalizing tray of hors d'oeuvres, none of which will likely be declined. * Kirkus Reviews *Gilbert Waldbauer is one of those few lucky people paid to pursue their hobby. Reading Insects Through the Seasons, one discovers why he finds entomology endlessly fascinating...And as if his words, a blend of science and sentiment, were not enough to bring the subject to life, a cecropia moth flies across the bottom corner of the book as one flicks the pages. Here readers will discover strange stories and fantastic facts about the lives of insects and the many ways in which millions of years of evolution have equipped these organisms, arguably the most successful on our planet. -- George C. McGavin * Nature *These excellent books [Gilbert Waldbauer's Insects through the Seasons and Bernd Heinrich's Thermal Warriors] are best read fully and carefully, and in the order just listed. Each summarizes a wealth of intriguing information about a group often and justifiably characterized as the most successful of living creatures. Waldbauer, in the more general of the two books, has hit on the clever scheme of following insect life through the changing demands of seasonal changes, thus giving structure to a wealth of information. Heinrich, by contrast, provides a dazzling account of a particular and little-known aspect of insect life--thermoregulation. -- Russell Stevens, Phi Beta Kappa * Key Reporter *Tracing an animal's life through the seasons is a common strategy for the single-species monograph, but it is a mere marker for this book. Waldbauer uses the yearly cycle of the cecropia moth as a base to which he periodically returns while presenting an impressive array of the tactics the moth's fellow insects and arthropod relatives use to live and thrive. Those methods...are phenomenally various and gratifyingly intriguing...A real natural history treasury, this is an elegant volume, too, thanks to the many excellent line drawings that entertainingly include a flip-book of a cecropia in flight on the lower right-hand-page corners. -- Ray Olson * Booklist *A lively, well-written introduction to an endlessly fascinating side of natural history. * Publishers Weekly *

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Book SynopsisSmall farms once occupied the heights that Elder calls home, but now only a few cellar holes and tumbled stone walls remain among the dense stands of maple, beech, and hemlocks on these Vermont hills. This book is a journey into these verdant reaches where in the last century humans tried their hand and where bear and moose now find shelter.Trade ReviewStarting with a few lines of Frost's poem on the human and natural histories of this enclave, each chapter examines the exquisite detail of nearby nature in conjunction with close analysis of Frost's expansive meanings...Readers may question whether this is primarily a book of literary criticism, environmental appreciation or simply a minute vivisection of a poem, but in the end Elder persuades us of the vastly encompassing theme Frost addressed and the eventual self-discovery of being lost in this land. Elder has written a tour de force of insight and interpretive skill. * Publishers Weekly *It is deeply personal and profoundly moving--and an eloquent challenge to some of the principal assumptions that guide the environmental movement in this country. Reading the Mountains of Home may be at once one of the more accessible yet complex nature books ever published. It is accessible because Elder is an immensely gifted writer, whether he's describing the way a glacier halved a mountain 20,000 years ago or explaining why, in his opinion, Frost was one of New England's great naturalists. It is complex because the book has three distinct threads: First, there is a nature writer's scrutiny of the world; second, there is an English professor's precise discussion of literature and one long Frost poem; and, third, there is one man's self-examination at midlife...Though John Elder's book is suffused with loss...[it] is uplifting. In part, this is due to Elder's contention that man and nature are not incompatible and that wilderness may be renewable after all. But it is due also to Elder himself: It is not hard for Elder to find beauty and pleasure in the world, and this comes across on almost every page. -- Chris Bohjalian * Boston Globe Magazine *[This] is the most intelligent book about Vermont that I've read in several years. New Vermont books often fall into a very few predictable categories...John Elder's book, Reading the Mountains of Home, fits into none of those categories. It transcends them all, brilliantly, and emerges as that rare find: a new and fascinating look at this complex place we call home...A book of considerable subtlety and complexity that reads easily and spins a story as compelling as any good novel. But that's only one of [its] accomplishments. For what Elder has also done here, I believe, is the very important task of pointing a new, coherent direction for the national environmental movement, a movement now struggling with an outmoded script, and very much in need of revitalization...Perhaps the best description of Reading the Mountains of Home is to call it an exploration--a deep exploration of what a particular place can mean to a particular human being--and thereby to all of us. It's a book I hope every Vermonter will read. -- Tom Shayton * Vermont Public Radio *John Elder turned to Frost's last great poem and has written a beautiful study of its complicated narrative...More than literary criticism, Reading the Mountains of Home is an extended homage, a memoir and meditation. Elder succeeds in the most difficult of ways: As his focus expands, his concentration grows more acute...His analysis is attuned to both the language of the poem and to its concentric rings, the stories that illuminate this landscape and prove the vitality and relevance of poetry. -- Thomas Curwen * Los Angeles Times *John Elder has plumbed deeply the wisdom of the likes of Parker and Frost, examining with the skill of both a poet and a naturalist the history of the modern Vermont landscape...[He] has written a book that manages at once to blend precise nature writing, profound literary criticism, and a moving examination of his own personal world at midlife...Reading the Mountains of Home is a truly rare joy: It is a book that will not merely help a reader to navigate the world in the woods; it will also help one to understand that all too complex geography of the human soul. -- Chris Bohjalian * Free Press (Burlington) *Elder's extended essay achieves what little criticism does: it brings poetry, literally, down to earth...Part meditation, part ecological history of [the Bristol] woods, and part literary criticism, the work is also a quiet testimonial to the uses of reading--reading either a mountain or a poem...This is the opposite of most academic writing--although Elder is a professor of English and environmental studies at Middlebury College--and also averse to the critical writing of most poets today, since...[his] language avoids the lyrical and mystical steadfastly for the plain and true. As a provocative alternative to customary criticism, it is also an example well worth following by other writers--a 'directive' of its own. * Poetry Calendar *Elder hikes through the [Bristol] region as he muses on its sociology and biology and how its hardwood forests were lost to small farms, themselves now replaced by blazing maples. In an unusual and insightful book, Elder argues that not all ecological destruction this century was intrinsically wrong, while showing that, just because a landscape pleases the eye, there is nothing to say that it must be natural. -- Adrian Barnett * New Scientist [UK] *I'm not sure what impressed me more about John Elder's writing in Reading the Mountains of Home: his eloquent use of language or the ambitiousness of what he accomplishes. First, the book functions as a literary exercise...Second, it examines the complicated cycles of loss and recovery within Vermont's natural and human communities. Finally, Reading the Mountains of Home is an engaging familial narrative, as Elder processes several personal losses--the death of his father and dog, the slow recovery of his mother from surgery, and the social withdrawal of his son...This book is for the optimist as well as the amateur historian. Elder celebrates change by describing how loss soon leads to recovery; 'sometimes we must go down before we find our second chance.' Citing [Frost's] 'Directive,' Elder espouses the value of being 'lost enough to find yourself.' Delightfully, Elder's journey becomes the reader's. -- Kelly Ault * Vermont Woodlands *Reading the Mountains of Home is an exquisite literary map that orients us toward an empathetic response to wilderness. Using Robert Frost's poem, 'Directive' as his compass, John Elder charts an utterly original course as he explores the terrain of his own natural autobiography and what it means to live in place. This book is a smart, moving, and intricate path through the wildlands of Vermont. John Elder has created a beautiful, enduringly wise topography of his own, where language and landscape create a confluence of native rapport. -- Terry Tempest Williams, author of RefugeWhat a grand book this is! It's too full of life to be confined to a genre--it's memoir, natural history, and literary criticism, but it's also much more than the sum of its parts. Reading the Mountains of Home is one of the great classics of the American East. -- Bill McKibbenElder mixes his experiences on the land with wide ranging reflections. Ashe observes his external world, he also looks inward, examining how thelandscape has become meaningful to himself, his family, and his neighbors. John Elder is a fine writer, a knowledgeable and insightful guide, a livelyand engaging companion, a man of remarkable depth, sensitivity, andgentleness. What a pleasure, to share in this man's loving, thoughtfulexploration of Bristol and the surrounding mountain country. -- Richard Nelson, author of The Island WithinJohn Elder's Reading the Mountains of Home blends mountain hiking, Robert Frost, Vermont history and lore, and meditations on family into a thoughtful depiction of living with nature in the late twentieth century. Lovers of Frost's poetry, of New England's landscapes, and of the rich tradition of American nature writing, of which Elder is a leading authority, will be drawn to this engaging volume. -- David M. Robinson, Oregon State UniversityJohn Elder has interwoven a dazzling series of odysseys, of heart and head, place and people, composed them in the framework of Robert Frost's 'Directive,' and produced one of the most beautiful books of natural history I've ever read. It is seldom that the elegance of one writer's soul, mind, and style have combined to give us such insights into the relationship of people with place and with each other, and the epiphany of riding your own fragile handmade canoe through whitewater rapids. -- Ann H. ZwingerHere is a very unusual piece of nature writing. John Elder makes his way simultaneously through Robert Frost's greatest poem and through one of Vermont's wildest places. His double journey produces a whole book of illuminations. -- Noel Perrin, Dartmouth CollegeElder begins each chapter with several lines from the poem, an effective technique that creates a convergence of literary criticism and nature writing. The reader learns much about the natural history of the Vermont landscape, from prehistory to the settling and clear-cutting by Europeans to current recovery and return to wilderness. Elder is an able guide, sprinkling his text with anecdotes, statistics, and self-revelation. -- Randy Dykhuis * Library Journal *A sure sign that the Northern Forest region is in the early stages of cultural renewal is the development of a Northern Forest literature, 'a dialogue between wilderness and culture.' John Elder's...book Reading the Mountains of Home is a wonderful contribution to this dialogue...[The book] is a deep, lyrical, celebration of living very locally. Yet, its focus on such a small plot of land leads the writer and reader to ponder universal questions of living lightly on Earth. -- Jamie Sayen * Wild Earth *Table of Contents"Directive" by Robert Frost Introduction South Mountain A Wilderness of Scars Hiking by Flashlight Bristol Cliffs The Plane on South Mountain Succession Someone's Road Home Interval In the Village North Mountain North Mountain Gyres The Ledges Coltsfoot, Mourning Cloak The Stolen Goblet A Confusion of Waters Notes Selected Readings Acknowledgments Index

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Book SynopsisNeutron stars, the ultra-dense remnants of exploded stellar giants, are among the most fascinating objects in the cosmos. Katia Moskvitch introduces readers to their astonishing qualities and follows the scientists who are discovering what neutron stars can tell us about the mysteries of dark matter, black holes, and general relativity.Trade ReviewTaking us behind the scenes of scientific exploration, Katia Moskvitch introduces the people responsible for advancing our understanding of neutron stars and communicates the feeling of amazement that accompanies unexpected discovery. -- Jocelyn Bell Burnell, codiscoverer of pulsarsNeutron stars, super-dense balls of nuclear matter at the end-points of stellar evolution, are detectable from Earth through their emission of radio and gravitational waves. Katia Moskvitch provides a fascinating tour of the world’s most sensitive detectors for such radiation, the prediction and discovery of neutron stars, their place in the grand cosmic scheme, and up-close views of many of the gifted astrophysicists behind these discoveries. -- Joseph H. Taylor, Jr., winner of the Nobel Prize in PhysicsMoskvitch offers riveting explanations of what astronomers have learned so far using radio telescopes, starting with Jocelyn Bell’s discovery in 1967 of the first pulsar, and what puzzles remain in the tantrums as well as quiet murmur of neutron stars. -- Priyamvada Natarajan * New York Review of Books *Enthralling…Moskvitch skillfully explicates these bizarre celestial objects, memorably dubbing them ‘cosmic zombies’ for the way they send radio waves, gamma rays, and x-rays after the ‘death’ of the stars from which they originate…Carl Sagan devotees will relish this portrayal of a new frontier in science. * Publishers Weekly (starred review) *Fantastic…Not only are there great insights into the physics that underpin these zombie stars, but they are often explained using anecdotes from scientists all over the globe…Moskvitch has written a beautiful book of personal stories, entwined with an exploration of these exotic stellar objects. -- Amber Hornsby * BBC Sky at Night *For astronomers, neutron stars are the gift that keeps on giving. For more than fifty years, a crescendo of discoveries has amazed us and led us to probe the laws of physics to the breaking point. Katia Moskvitch recounts the key advances and clearly explains the underlying science. And she has the journalistic skills to offer readers a real feel for what it's like to be part of the international community of astronomers—experiencing triumphs and disappointments in the quest to discover exotic cosmic phenomena. -- Martin Rees, author of On the FutureIf watching Tom Cruise in Top Gun made some want to be navy pilots, this book will make many young scientists want to become detectives of the universe. Katia Moskvitch takes us through the history of our understanding of the enigmatic neutron stars in a book that is punctuated with human stories, crazy ideas, novel instrumentation, and profound discoveries. This rich tale is an inspiring account of the process of science. -- France A. Córdova, former Director of the National Science FoundationA remarkable encounter with remote radio observatories, mind-boggling theories, and the most bizarre objects in the universe. Packed with information but accessible throughout, this fast-paced book is a wonderful introduction to the most exciting topics in current astronomy. -- Govert Schilling, author of Ripples in SpacetimeAn extraordinary blending of scales and disciplines, from astrophysics to particle physics, Neutron Stars faithfully describes one of the most active frontiers of science today, and introduces the exciting new field of multi-messenger astronomy. -- Stavros Katsanevas, Director of the European Gravitational ObservatoryKatia Moskvitch takes the reader on a breakneck tour of the last century of thought and observation into neutron stars. Her research is impeccable, with complicated concepts presented in an easily understood manner. I highly recommend Neutron Stars to anyone who wants to learn not only about the history of neutron star research, but also the current race to understand fast radio bursts, magnetars, and colliding neutron stars. -- Stephen R. Taylor, Vanderbilt UniversityWith journalistic flair, unlimited enthusiasm, and enviable travel funds, Moskvitch has visited radio telescopes on five continents, spoken to many of the key researchers including Jocelyn Bell, and managed to connect a surprising number of dots to give a big picture view of the Universe. -- Michael Gross * Chemistry & Industry *A detailed overview of what we know, and have yet to find out, about neutron stars and their place in the universe…Engaging. -- Jeff Foust * Space Review *An enjoyable read about an area of science in which remarkable advances-in-insight have been made in recent years—and where much promising work looks to be possible. * Complete Review *

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Book SynopsisBeing among bees is a full-body experience, Mark Winston writes. Bee Time presents his reflections on three decades spent studying these remarkable creatures, and on the lessons they can teach about how humans might better interact with one another and the natural world, from the boardroom to urban design to agricultural ecosystems.Trade ReviewMark Winston has spent 30 years studying and working with bees. His book is a passionate celebration of bees, apiaries and honey, as well as a calmly reasoned critique of industrialized farming and a plea to halt the dramatic decline in bee numbers… A wonderfully rich insight into the imperiled world of the bee. -- P. D. Smith * The Guardian *In this personal and scientific journey into the history we share with bees, [Winston] ranges over neonicotinoid pesticides and colony collapse, the control of African ‘killer’ bees and more. The charismatic social insects emerge as both icons of societal cohesion and symbols of nature’s paradoxically mingled power and fragility. -- Barbara Kiser * Nature *[Winston] writes lovingly of the rhythms and quiddities of the apiary… In a highly personal style, Winston steps between reportage, scientific exactitude and a deep, poetically expressed love of bees, beekeeping and the cultural forms that bees inspire. People and bees have been working together for millennia—synergy that Winston, sensitized by his work as a communications specialist, clearly feels brings out the best and the worst in humanity. His take on the situation makes Bee Time an insightful delight. -- Adrian Barnett * New Scientist *Winston wants to acquaint his readers with the fascinating complexity of the bee world, and he also wants to alert readers to the fact that the bee world is drastically endangered. He brings to this hybrid task a very smooth ability to simplify the complex bee-literature he’s obviously mastered, providing engaging glimpses into the world of the hive—and usually presenting them in parallel context of the human world… Considering the enormous ripple-effects that would happen in the wake of the disappearance of these key pollinators, Winston’s wake-up call takes on an urgency that’s belied by its friendly, approachable tone. That clarion call makes Bee Time an important book, even if you by chance suffer from a touch of apiphobia. -- Steve Donoghue * Open Letters Monthly *[Winston] presents a stark picture of how much we expect from, and rely on, bees. -- Kristin Treen * Literary Review *Thoughtful and eloquent… Winston is an inspired cross-pollinator, who uses the ‘full-body experience’ of being with bees to draw lessons for human hives. -- Sarah Murdoch * Toronto Star *Like the beekeeper he is, paying careful attention to what’s going on in his colonies, Winston has done a fine job with this book. Bee Time is beautifully written and rich in the detail, evoking emotions without being overly maudlin. -- Jeff Lee * Vancouver Sun *[Winston’s] lyricism inspires awe of these necessary insects. -- Temma Ehrenfeld * Weekly Standard *A recap of what’s been going on in beekeeping over the past 10 years or so… Winston has left no hive unturned in this work, documenting all the good, and the bad that has occurred… There are indeed lessons to learn from a bee hive. This work will share some of them with you. -- Kim Flottum * Bee Culture *Winston combines beekeeping work/research, philosophical musings, and his personal memories in this enjoyable book. -- J. M. Gonzalez * Choice *Bee Time is a unique book: in turn a touching memoir, a warm paean to the honey bees that have fueled Winston’s impressive scientific career, and an insightful analysis of some of the serious environmental problems facing us today. -- Gene E. Robinson, University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignNo other book celebrates the long relationship between humans and honeybees as powerfully, thoughtfully, and enchantingly as this one. Written in lyrical prose, Bee Time is a delightful and inspiring read. -- Thomas D. Seeley, author of Honeybee Democracy

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Book SynopsisThe unique relationship between dogs and humans has had huge evolutionary consequences, changing the physical, behavioral, genetic, and emotional characteristics of both species. Pat Shipman looks to fossil records and new evidence to trace how the process of domestication worked and discovers how much of ourselves we owe to our canine companions.Trade ReviewThis book is a great read for anyone interested in dogs but is overall of a high enough quality for scholars to enjoy. Shipman explores the genetic, behavioral, and archaeological studies revealing the development of the companion relationship between people and dogs, and brings the human and canid settlement of the Australian region into a global context. -- Susan O’Connor, author of Transcending the Culture–Nature Divide in Cultural HeritageWhen, where, and how did the partnership between dogs and humans begin? Was it an accident? Was it inevitable? Where would we human beings be without our canine colleagues? Pat Shipman’s Our Oldest Companions is a must-read, a tour de force drawing together under one proverbial roof what science can tell us to date. A follow-up to her provocative and intriguing The Invaders, Dr. Shipman examines the anthropology and archeology of the dog’s transition from wolf to house pet all over the world, from the Australian Outback to north of the Arctic Circle. You’ll want to read this book three, four, even five times in order to absorb the abundance of research and ideas presented here. -- Wendy Williams, author of The Horse: The Epic History of Our Noble CompanionThe latest in a string of authoritative and readable books by Pat Shipman benefits from her well-known scientific knowledge and her great storytelling ability. One of the first times anyone has told how the evidence from archaeology and DNA of Sahul, with its late-appearing dingoes and singing dogs, adds to the human story rather than seeming anomalous. It is the perfect complement to other accounts written with a bias towards Africa, Asia, or Europe. This book, like the dogs that are at its center, covers all the continents where modern people have lived with them. Read it. You will enjoy it. -- Iain Davidson, author of Making Scenes: Global Perspectives on Scenes in Rock Art[A] lively tale of dog domestication and migration. -- Josie Glausiusz * Nature *The erudite Our Oldest Companions makes a remarkable story out of the long partnership between humans and dogs. * Foreword Reviews *A fascinating and often surprising exploration of human and canine evolution…[Shipman's] captivating prose will enchant all readers seeking to learn more about humans, dogs, and our long history together. -- Adrienne Krone * Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture *

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Book SynopsisAre we alone in the universe? It is a captivating question, but one that historically eluded proper scientific investigation. The new discipline of astrobiology changes the game, introducing rigor to the quest for extraterrestrial life. Life in the Cosmos surveys the field, showing how cutting-edge research is closing in on the answers “out there.”Trade ReviewThe new go-to for astrobiology. Life in the Cosmos is a quantitative and encyclopedic tour de force for all topics related to the origin of life on Earth and life’s existence beyond. -- Sara Seager, author of The Smallest Lights in the UniverseAn instant classic. Lingam and Loeb’s brilliant Life in the Cosmos is a momentous scientific achievement. To anyone looking to dig deep into the exciting prospect of discovering extraterrestrial life, I say: Make space on your bookshelf. -- Michael J. Russell, University of TurinA book of sweeping vision. Lingam and Loeb offer detailed and insightful analysis of the challenges we face as we investigate the universal distribution of this unusual material we call life. A helpful and fascinating read. -- Charles Cockell, author of Astrobiology: Understanding Life in the UniverseAre we alone in the universe? Lingam and Loeb provide expert guidance to the many dimensions of this fundamental question—and, just maybe, how to answer it. -- Andrew H. Knoll, author of A Brief History of Earth: Four Billion Years in Eight ChaptersA remarkable and modern survey of how to search for life in the universe, from two of the boldest, most innovative thinkers in the field today. Impressively detailed, this book takes into account what we know about life on Earth to consider what we don’t know about life elsewhere. -- Jason Wright, Director, Penn State Extraterrestrial Intelligence CenterThis book discusses everything you ever wanted to know about life in the cosmos. Lingam and Loeb are the best guides for this truly breathtaking journey, providing masterful and comprehensive answers for everyone, from the scholar to the amateur stargazer. -- Dimitar Sasselov, author of The Life of Super-Earths: How the Hunt for Alien Worlds and Artificial Cells Will Revolutionize Life on Our PlanetThe search for intelligent alien life continues to motivate and inspire generations of scientists and the public alike…The authors separate themselves from other treatments of similar topics by focusing on ‘extraterrestrial technological intelligences’ rather than alien life more generally. * Nature Astronomy *Boldly goes where few academic books have gone before by seriously and open-mindedly considering the possibility of extraterrestrial technological intelligence on par with or far beyond humans…Chock-full of interesting topics and insights…A stellar achievement that deserves the undivided attention of readers who are ready to take a deep dive into astrobiology. * Inquisitive Biologist *An excellent primer on life on earth, from the very beginnings…Both incredibly wide-ranging and constantly fascinating. * Complete Review *

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Book Synopsis By virtue of its casual, off-handedly brilliant wisdom and the easy splendor of its nature writing, Thoreau’s account of his adventure in self-reliance on the shores of a pond in Massachusetts is one of the signposts by which the modern mind has located itself in an increasingly bewildering world. Deeply sane, invigorating in its awareness of humanity’s place in the moral and natural order, Walden represents the progressive spirit of nineteenth-century America at its eloquent best.

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Book SynopsisThe most comprehensive field guide available to the flora and fauna of Florida--a portable, essential companion for visitors and residents alike--from the go-to reference source for over 18 million nature lovers.This compact volume contains:An easy-to-use field guide for identifying 1,000 of the state's wildflowers, trees, mushrooms, mosses, fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, butterflies, mammals, and much more;A complete overview of Florida's natural history, covering geology, wildlife habitats, ecology, fossils, rocks and minerals, clouds and weather patterns and night sky;An extensive sampling of the area's best parks, preserves, beaches, forests, islands, and wildlife sanctuaries, with detailed descriptions and visitor information for 50 sites and notes on dozens of others.The guide is packed with visual information -- the 1,500 full-color images include more than 1,300 photographs, 14 maps, and 16 night-sky charts, as well as 150 dr

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Book SynopsisA portable, comprehensive field guide to North American butterflies--brimming with concise descriptions and stunning color photographs, and designed to fit into your back pocket--from the go-to reference source for over 18 million nature lovers.This streamlined volume contains: a simple field guide identifying 80 of the most widespread butterflies in North America and a complete overview of observing butterflies, covering basic identifying field marks and practical tips for observing and distinguishing different butterflies.This pocket guide is packed with information; bright photographs capturing the butterflies perched with their wings spread and closed; specific descriptions of each species' important identifying characteristics, life cycle, habitat and range, line drawings depicting the basic butterfly anatomy, a description of major butterfly groups and a glossary of technical terms.When observing these beautifully fragile creatures, the National

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Book SynopsisA portable, comprehensive field guide to North American animal tracks--brimming with concise descriptions and stunning color photographs, and designed to fit into your back pocket--from the go-to reference source for over 18 million nature lovers.Designed to help readers more fully understand how animals live and survive in the wilds, this guide is a must for every nature explorer. Detailed line drawings and text reveal clues found in an animal's tracks that help identify it.

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisA portable, comprehensive field guide--brimming with concise descriptions and stunning color photographs, and designed to fit into your back pocket--from the go-to reference source for over 18 million nature lovers.This handy guide covers 80 of the most common and frequently encountered birds in backyards and suburban areas of eastern North America. The majority of species are songbirds, but here also are other backyard birds such as doves and woodpeckers. The region covered by the book extends roughly from the Atlantic Ocean west to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, north of Mexico. This traditional dividing line between eastern and western North America follows the 100th meridian, and marks a significant difference in habitats and species. The companion volume to western birds covers species west of this boundary.

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Book SynopsisEloquent, practical and wise, this book by one of the world’s most important scientists—and two time Pulitzer Prize winner—should be read and studied by anyone concerned with the fate of the natural world. It makes one thing clear ... we know what we do, and we have a choice (The New York Times Book Review).E.O. Wilson assesses the precarious state of our environment, examining the mass extinctions occurring in our time and the natural treasures we are about to lose forever. Yet, rather than eschewing doomsday prophesies, he spells out a specific plan to save our world while there is still time. His vision is a hopeful one, as economically sound as it is environmentally necessary.

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Book SynopsisSynopsis coming soon.......

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Book SynopsisDescribes the major groups of marine animals, including fish, birds, mammals, and crustaceans.

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Book SynopsisHenry fights to get his puppy, Mudge, into the bathtub after the dog's playful romp in the mud.

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Book SynopsisOcean Biogeochemical Dynamics provides a broad theoretical framework upon which graduate students and upper-level undergraduates can formulate an understanding of the processes that control the mean concentration and distribution of biologically utilized elements and compounds in the ocean. Though it is written as a textbook, it will also be of interest to more advanced scientists as a wide-ranging synthesis of our present understanding of ocean biogeochemical processes. The first two chapters of the book provide an introductory overview of biogeochemical and physical oceanography. The next four chapters concentrate on processes at the air-sea interface, the production of organic matter in the upper ocean, the remineralization of organic matter in the water column, and the processing of organic matter in the sediments. The focus of these chapters is on analyzing the cycles of organic carbon, oxygen, and nutrients. The next three chapters round out the authors'' coverage of ocean biogeochemical cycles with discussions of silica, dissolved inorganic carbon and alkalinity, and CaCO3. The final chapter discusses applications of ocean biogeochemistry to our understanding of the role of the ocean carbon cycle in interannual to decadal variability, paleoclimatology, and the anthropogenic carbon budget. The problem sets included at the end of each chapter encourage students to ask critical questions in this exciting new field. While much of the approach is mathematical, the math is at a level that should be accessible to students with a year or two of college level mathematics and/or physics.Trade Review"This textbook is a monumental and masterful achievement, and the authors should be congratulated both for taking on this important task and for the end result... Every serious student and post-doc in this discipline, and all senior practitioners, should purchase or borrow a copy of this book and read it from cover to cover."--David M. Karl, Bulletin of the American Society for Limnology and Oceanography "Readers of Environmental Conservation with an interest in marine biogeochemistry and earth system science are encouraged to purchase or borrow this book. It is a comprehensive text on a complex and timely topic, and is one that will enlighten students and professionals alike. The authors are to be congratulated on their tour-de-force."--Peter Burkill, Environmental ConservationTable of ContentsPreface xi Chapter 1: Introduction 1 1.1 Chemical Composition of the Ocean 1 1.2 Distribution of Chemicals in the Ocean 7 1.3 Chapter Conclusion and Outline of Book 15 Problems 16 Chapter 2: Tracer Conservation and Ocean Transport 19 2.1 Tracer Conservation Equation 19 Advection and Diffusion Components 19 Application to Box Models 22 2.2 Wind-Driven Circulation 23 Equations of Motion 27 Ekman Transport 28 Gyre Circulation 30 2.3 Wind-Driven Circulation in the Stratified Ocean 33 Basic Concepts 34 Ocean Stratification 34 Geostrophic Equations 37 Gyre Circulation with Stratification 37 Insights from the Potential Vorticity Distribution 38 Insights from Tracers 39 Insights from the Thermal Wind Relationship 42 2.4 Deep Ocean Circulation 46 Observations 46 Models 52 Summary of Deep Ocean Circulation 57 2.5 Time-Varying Flows 59 Mesoscale Variability 60 Interannual to Decadal Variability 61 Tropical Variability 61 Extratropical Variability 66 Problems 69 Chapter 3: Air-Sea Interface 73 3.1 Introduction 73 3.2 Gas Solubilities 75 3.3 Gas Exchange 80 Stagnant Film Model 81 Laboratory Studies 83 Field Studies 86 Gas Transfer Velocity Models 89 3.4 Applications 95 Problems 100 Chapter 4: Organic Matter Production 102 4.1 Introduction 102 Nutrient Supply 105 Light 111 Efficiency of the Biological Pump 111 Outline 114 4.2 Ecosystem Processes 115 Nutrients 115 Composition of Organic Matter 115 Limiting Nutrient 117 Paradigm of Surface Ocean Nitrogen Cycling 117 Phytoplankton 123 Classification of Organisms 123 Phytoplankton Distribution and Productivity 128 Modeling Photosynthesis 131 Zooplankton 135 Bacteria 137 4.3 Analysis of Ecosystem Behavior 138 Role of Light Supply 139 Classical Ecosystem Models 142 N-P Model--Bottom-up Limitation 142 N-P-Z Model--Top-Down Limitation 144 Adding the Microbial Loop 146 Multiple Size Class Ecosystem Models 147 The Model 147 Influence of Micronutrients 149 Applications 150 North Pacific versus North Atlantic 152 Oligotrophic Region 155 4.4 A Synthesis 157 The Regeneration Loop 158 The Export Pathway 158 The Role of Iron 160 Conclusions 162 Problems 168 Chapter 5: Organic Matter Export and Remineralization 173 5.1 Introduction 173 Nutrient and Oxygen Distributions 173 Remineralizaton Reactions 178 Preformed and Remineralized Components 179 Dissolved and Particulate Organic Matter 180 Outline 181 5.2 Oxygen 181 Separation of Preformed and Remineralized Components 181 Deep Ocean Oxygen Utilization Rates 182 Thermocline Oxygen Utilization Rates 183 5.3 Nitrogen and Phosphorus 186 Stoichiometric Ratios 186 Phosphate 188 The Nitrogen Cycle 189 N* as a Tracer of Denitrification 189 N* as a Tracer of N2 Fixation 195 The Oceanic Nitrogen Budget 196 Nitrous Oxide 197 5.4 Organic Matter Cycling 200 Particulate Organic Matter 200 Overview 200 Particle Flux 203 The Role of Ballast 206 Particle Remineralization 207 Models of Particle Interactions 209 Dissolved Organic Matter 211 5.5 Models 215 Model Development 215 Sensitivity Studies 217 Applications: Control of Oceanic Oxygen 221 Problems 222 Chapter 6: Remineralization and Burial in the Sediments 227 6.1 Introduction 227 Observations 227 Sediment Properties and Processes 229 Remineralization Reactions 233 6.2 Sediment Diagenesis Models 236 Pore Waters 237 Solids 241 6.3 Remineralization 245 Oxic Sediments 246 Anoxic Sediments 250 Dissolved Organic Carbon 253 6.4 Burial 255 The Substrate 255 The Oxidant 256 Protection by Mineral Adsorption 257 Synthesis 258 6.5 Organic Matter Budget 260 Problems 267 Chapter 7: Silicate Cycle 270 7.1 Introduction 270 Water Column Observations 271 Sediment Observations 271 Outline 278 7.2 Euphotic Zone 278 Diatoms 278 Opal Production and Export 280 7.3 Water Column 285 Opal 286 Silicic Acid 288 7.4 Sediments 295 Opal Dissolution and Burial 295 Opal Chemistry 299 7.5 Conclusion 308 Overview 308 Marine Si Budget 309 Long-Term Homeostasis 311 Problems 313 Chapter 8: Carbon Cycle 318 8.1 Introduction 319 8.2 Inorganic Carbon Chemistry 322 8.3 The Surface Ocean 327 Annual Mean Distribution 327 Physical Processes 328 Biological Processes 331 Vector Diagrams 334 Seasonal Variability 335 Subtropical Gyres 337 North Atlantic 340 North Pacific 341 8.4 Water Column 342 Outline 342 Pump Components 342 The Biological Pumps 345 The Gas Exchange Pump 347 Global Mean 347 Atlantic versus Pacific 349 8.5 Carbon Pumps and Surface Fluxes 352 Problems 355 Chapter 9: Calcium Carbonate Cycle 359 9.1 Introduction 359 9.2 Production 362 Organisms 362 Export Estimates 363 Inorganic-to-Organic Carbon Export Ratio 363 9.3 Water Column Processes 365 CaCO3 Solubility 365 Variations in Saturation State 368 Carbonate Ion Distribution 368 Water Column Dissolution 371 9.4 Diagenesis 374 CaCO3 Dissolution in Sediments 374 Modeling CaCO3 Diagenesis 379 Model Applications 379 Concluding Remarks 384 9.5 Calcium Carbonate Compensation 384 CaCO3 Homeostat 384 CaCO3 Compensation 386 Problems 389 Chapter 10: Carbon Cycle, CO2, and Climate 392 10.1 Introduction 392 Greenhouse Effect 394 Global Warming 396 Outline 398 10.2 The Anthropogenic Perturbation 399 Capacity Constraints 400 Buffering by Dissolved Carbonate 400 Buffering by Sediment CaCO3 401 Buffering by Weathering 402 Kinetic Constraints 402 Atmospheric Pulse Response 402 Ocean Uptake and Buffering with Dissolved Carbonate 403 Buffering by Sediment CaCO3 405 Anthropogenic CO2 Uptake 405 Direct Estimation 406 Reconstruction of Anthropogenic CO2 Inventory 408 The Atmospheric Oxygen Method 413 The Role of Biology 414 Future CO2 Uptake 415 10.3 Interannual to Decadal Timescale Variability 417 Tropical Variability 419 Extratropical Variability 423 10.4 Glacial-Interglacial Atmospheric CO2 Changes 429 Setting the Scene 431 Terrestrial Biosphere Carbon Loss 431 Salinity Changes 432 Temperature Changes 434 Fundamental Mechanisms 435 Southern Ocean Dominance 435 Equilibration of Low-Latitude Changes 436 Closing the Southern Ocean Window 440 Physical Mechanisms 442 Biological Mechanisms 443 Observational Constraints 444 A Role for the Regions outside the Southern Ocean? 446 Circulation Scenarios 447 Soft-Tissue Pump Scenarios 447 Alkalinity and Carbonate Pump Scenarios 449 A Synthesis Scenario 452 Problems 454 Appendix 459 References 461 Index 495

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Book SynopsisPrevious edition by Bruce M. Beehler, Thane K. Pratt, and Dale A. Zimmerman.Trade ReviewOne of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2016 One of the Birdbooker Report's Best Bird Books of 2014 "A must have for birders with an interest in the region!"--Ian Paulsen, Birdbooker Report "This is an excellent book and will serve travelling birders very well indeed and I am sure will be just as welcomes by local wildlife lovers in New Guinea... This is also a thing of beauty in itself and a pleasure to drool over."--Bo Beolens, Fatbirder "Amazing! Please buy it, whether or not you're planning a trip to West Papua or PNG. It's a must-have book... [A] high quality field guide, with maps on the same page as the plates, excellent, informative text, good artwork--and everything one hopes for in a field guide."--Birding Ecotours "Birds of New Guinea will be the major reference to birds of the island for many years to come and the authors are to be congratulated on a scholarly yet accessible book."--Phil Gregory, Australian Bird Life "I can not recommend this guide highly enough whether you are planning a trip to New Guinea or you are just an armchair birder widening your horizons about the world's birds. An excellent present for yourself or the birder in your family."--Gloster Birder "Pratt and Beehler here cover all 780 bird species in this region, drawing in even more biological data--including some on behavior, diet, and nesting--than typically found in field guides. Detailed species accounts are now separate from the 111 color illustrations--most new and twice as many as the first edition--with additional abridged species accounts and habitat maps facing these plates. A long-awaited, greatly expanded update to an authoritative regional reference."--Judy Quinn, Library Journal "A wonderful updated and expanded second edition to the original Birds of New Guinea published 28 years ago... In Birds of New Guinea: Second Edition, the authors have greatly expanded the description of each species beyond the typical birding guide... An absolute must-have for both birders and individuals who work in the public or private sector focused on conservation of New Guinea's ecosystems."--Gabriel Thoumi, Mongabay.com "A must-have for everyone from ecotourists to field researchers, Birds of New Guinea remains an indispensable guide to the diverse birds of this remarkable region."--Ornithological Newsletter "If you're lucky enough to go birding in New Guinea, you'll want this field guide."--Grant McCreary, Birder's Library "There is no doubt that this book will be a very popular addition to many birders libraries over the next few months and those visiting PNG next year will armed with a great deal more knowledge than before--the real test of a new book comes in the field and I like many more am looking forward to giving it that test."--Ashley Banwell, Rare Bird Alert "From cassowaries to parrots and birds-of-paradise to fairy-wrens, with sicklebills, mannikins and fantails in between, birders visiting New Guinea need to be prepared for a deluge of delightful birds, and Birds of New Guinea: Second Edition is the book to help them do it. From an extensive orientation to beautifully illustrated plates and expanded species accounts, this guide is the go-to resource all things birding in New Guinea."--Melissa Mayntz, About.com Birding "An incredibly good field guide."--Grant McCreary, Birder's Library "Birding in New Guinea for the first time would make the most experienced birder feel like a beginner searching through the vast number of endemics. This is the guide to take along on such an adventure."--REH, Wildlife Activist "It's hard to find fault in this excellent publication, so I won't. I would however, encourage all birders to purchase it and start saving for the ultimate birding trip--believe me, watching your first displaying bird-of-paradise will certainly bring this field guide alive!"--Tim Appleton, Birdwatch "If there ever was a time to visit New Guinea it is now. Pratt and Beehler's impressive book will surely help you to make the most of your visit."--Vincent Nijman, IBIS "This field guide is a must for anyone contemplating serious birding or research on birds in New Guinea. It is as aesthetically pleasing as it is informative and authoritative."--H. Carl Gerhardt, Wilson Journal of Ornithology Praise for the first edition:"This book is not only indispensable to any bird-watcher visiting New Guinea and the adjacent islands, but, owing to the wealth of its information, it will be of great interest to anyone who is seriously interested in birds."--American ScientistTable of ContentsPreface 9 Acknowledgments 11 Abbreviations 13 1. Introduction 14 2. How to Use This Book 17 3. New Guinea Natural History 20 4. In the Field in Search of Birds 33 Selected References 36 Web Sources 39 Plates 40 Species Accounts 262 Index 517

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Book SynopsisThe essential field guide to the raptors of Mexico and Central America Raptors are among the most challenging birds to identify in the field due to their bewildering variability of plumage, flight silhouettes, and behavior. Raptors of Mexico and Central America is the first illustrated guide to the region's 69 species of raptors, including vagrantTrade Review"Bird identification books are utilitarian. No matter the skill with paint brush or camera or keyboard, they are utilities. Raptors of Mexico and Central America is that and more. From Princeton University Press, this book gives you all of the utility plus over 200 pages of life histories and in many cases stunning photographs."--Jim Williams, Minneapolis Star Tribune's Wingnut blogTable of ContentsList of Plates 7 Foreword 8 Acknowledgments 10 INTRODUCTION 11 How to Use This Guide 16 Raptor Glossary 17 PLATES 24 SPECIES ACCOUNTS 88 NEW WORLD VULTURES: Cathartiformes Black Vulture 88 Turkey Vulture 91 Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture 94 California Condor 97 King Vulture 99 OSPREY: Pandioninae Osprey 102 FAMILY: Accipitridae Gray-headed Kite 106 Hook-billed Kite 109 Swallow-tailed Kite 112 Pearl Kite 115 White-tailed Kite 117 Snail Kite 121 Slender-billed Kite 126 Double-toothed Kite 128 Mississippi Kite 130 Plumbeous Kite 133 Bald Eagle 135 Black-collared Hawk 138 Northern Harrier 140 Long-winged Harrier 144 Gray-bellied Hawk 146 Tiny Hawk 148 Sharp-shinned Hawk 150 White-breasted Hawk 154 Cooper's Hawk 156 Bicolored Hawk 159 Northern Goshawk 162 Crane Hawk 165 Plumbeous Hawk 167 Savannah Hawk 169 Common Black Hawk 172 Great Black Hawk 176 Solitary Eagle 180 Barred Hawk 183 Roadside Hawk 186 Harris's Hawk 190 White-tailed Hawk 193 White Hawk 197 Semiplumbeous Hawk 199 Gray Hawk 201 Gray-lined Hawk 204 Red-shouldered Hawk 207 Broad-winged Hawk 211 Short-tailed Hawk 214 Swainson's Hawk 218 Zone-tailed Hawk 222 Red-tailed Hawk 225 Harlan's Hawk 231 Ferruginous Hawk 234 Rough-legged Hawk 237 Crested Eagle 240 Harpy Eagle 242 Golden Eagle 245 Black Hawk-Eagle 248 Ornate Hawk-Eagle 250 Black and White Eagle 253 FALCONIDS: Falconidae Laughing Falcon 257 Barred Forest-Falcon 259 Slaty-backed Forest-Falcon 262 Collared Forest-Falcon 264 Red-throated Caracara 267 Crested Caracara 269 Yellow-headed Caracara 273 American Kestrel 276 Merlin 280 Aplomado Falcon 284 Bat Falcon 288 Orange-breasted Falcon 291 Peregrine Falcon 294 Prairie Falcon 298 References 301 Index 303

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Book SynopsisBirds of Prey of the East and its companion volume, Birds of Prey of the West, are the most comprehensive and authoritative field guides to North American birds of prey ever published. Written and lavishly illustrated with stunning, lifelike paintings by leading field-guide illustrator, photographer, and author Brian Wheeler, the guides depict an eTrade Review"One of American Birding Podcast's Best Bird Books of 2018 (Donna Schulman & Nate Swick)""[T]he art of the classic field guide is not lost but alive and well in these two volumes from Brian K. Wheeler. . . . These are mighty books for raptor enthusiasts who take their birds of prey seriously. They represent a new standard for bird field guides. They go beyond the definition of a guide and reach into the realms of dissertation, systematic study and detailed exploration. . . . Both are ‘must-haves’ for the serious raptor aficionado."---Phil Slade, Another Bird Blog"These guides are a must-have for all raptorphiles!"---Ian Paulsen, Birdbooker Report"Thirteen years in the making, this is an opus of the highest order, with a mass of information and detail, unrivalled by any other work presently available."---David Gascoigne, Travels With Birds

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Book SynopsisAn illustrated guide to 336 dragonfly and damselfly species of eastern North America - from the rivers of Manitoba to the Florida cypress swamps. It features hundreds of color photos that depict various species found in the region, detailed line drawings to help in-hand identification, and a color distribution map for various species.Trade Review"I truly believe that if there is such a thing as the 'must-have' book, Dragonflies and Damselflies of the East is IT... It contains all 336 species of Odonata that have been found in eastern North America. Not just dragons or just damsels, [but] all Odonata. That means ONE book for everything. It has excellent full-color photographs that are large enough to see many of coloration and patterns that are important... The species accounts are well-done with reference to similar species when appropriate. The natural history summaries for genera are very good, and valuable information for any ode enthusiast."--Mark O'Brien, Michigan Odonotes blog "This is a beautiful book, a joy to hold and to look at. Although it is a paperback, it is printed on sturdy glossy paper that will hold up well in the field... [I] recommend it as an essential field guide to the dragonflies."--Devorah Bennu, GrrlScientist blog "This is an excellent landmark field guide that belongs in every naturalist's collection."--Donna Schulman, 10,000 Birds "[A] terrific volume that will be very popular among odonate enthusiasts in the East."--Choice "[T]hese volumes are obviously authoritative, comprehensive and clearly designed with the needs of the naturalist in mind. The photographs are excellent and ... the text makes up for the unavoidable shortcomings of a photo-guide by including full descriptions of each species. Altogether, these two volumes constitute a complete, highly informative and beautifully illustrated guide to the Odonata of North America."--Guy Padfield, UKbutterfliesTable of Contents*FrontMatter, pg. 1*Contents, pg. 5*Preface, pg. 7*Introduction, pg. 9*Natural History of Odonates, pg. 11*Odonate Anatomy, pg. 27*Odonate Colors, pg. 32*Odonate Names, pg. 32*Finding Odonates, pg. 33*Identifying Odonates, pg. 34*Odonate Photography, pg. 36*Odonate Collecting and Collections, pg. 37*Odonate Threats and Conservation, pg. 40*Odonate Research, pg. 42*Odonates in the East, pg. 43*Explanation of Species Accounts, pg. 43*Broad-winged Damsel Family, pg. 49*Spreadwing Family, pg. 59*Pond Damsel Family, pg. 81*Petaltail Family, pg. 165*Darner Family, pg. 167*Clubtail Family, pg. 207*Spiketail Family, pg. 316*Cruiser Family, pg. 325*Emerald Family, pg. 336*Skimmer Family, pg. 399*Species Added to the Western Fauna in 2009 and 2010, pg. 519*Appendix: Dragonfly Publications and Resources, pg. 521*Glossary, pg. 523*Index, pg. 527

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Book SynopsisShows how insects dominated life on the planet and played a significant role in the life and death of the dinosaurs. Analyzing exotic insects fossilized in Cretaceous amber at three major deposits in Lebanon, Burma, and Canada, this work reconstructs the complex ecology of a hostile prehistoric world inhabited by voracious swarms of insects.Trade Review"[An] ambitious foray... The excellent colour pictures of fossil insects in Cretaceous amber are spectacular and evocative. This book shows that bloodsucking insects were well-established in the age of dinosaurs ... it is in the area of parasites and pathogens that this book startles. This book ... opens doors and invites questions ... and the accounts of the scientific endeavours cannot fail to impress."--Gaden Robinson, Times Literary Supplement "[A] detailed study of insects' role in the life and extinction of Cretaceous plants and animals. In scientific but straightforward language, the Poinars advance convincingly the thesis that insects acted as vectors for pathogens, spreading bacteria, fungi and viruses to plants as well as dinosaurs, who then passed it on to others. Using current examples like Dutch elm disease, speculative scenarios of Cretaceous life and plenty of research data, the authors add an intriguing new dimension to the dinosaur apocalypse narrative: periods of temperature change, marine regression, volcanic eruptions, and one or more meteor impacts... A perfect setting for the spread of diseases."--Publishers Weekly "Dinosaurs are usually portrayed as the pristine masters of the Cretaceous. George and Roberta Poinar's new book presents a different view--dinosaurs besieged by swarms of insects; dinosaurs with oozing, infected bites; dinosaurs weakened by parasite-induced illnesses. What Bugged the Dinosaurs? draws on the Poinars' many studies of fossils in amber to show how dinosaurs interacted with their more abundant invertebrate contemporaries. Reconstructing ancient ecosystems is an ambitious undertaking. Integrative approaches such as those in What Bugged the Dinosaurs? help us build up more sophisticated visions of the past."--Karen Chin, Nature "Whether or not you accept the authors' conclusion, they make a strong case that the true rulers of the Cretaceous were not the big lizards that towered over the landscape, but the tiny buggers that pervaded it."--Laurence A. Marschall, Natural History "What Bugged the Dinosaurs tells the story of insects' tremendous impact on Cretaceous ecosystems...There are fascinating chapters on the evolution of pathogens, what makes insects 'the ultimate survivors,' and the nature of extinctions...The scientific and, at times, technical, subject of this book is complemented by an often colorful narrative style...worthwhile for lay readers as well as experts."--Aaron Brooks, ForeWord Magazine "The Poinars graphically detail the probably diseases, debilitations, and deaths of dinosaurs from the life-cycle perspective of insects that infested them. The Poinars directly encourage younger readers by emphasizing how wide open paleoentomology is to future researchers. They impart enthusiasm in recounting their own discoveries...a mood supported by this book's several dozen photographs and drawings. Showing dinosaurs beleaguered, the Poinars temper the popular image of their dominance."--Gilbert Taylor, Booklist "Thanks to the astonishingly detailed evidence provided by insects trapped in amber, we know that insects competed with dinosaurs for food preyed on them, scavenged their corpses and cleared away their droppings. Most importantly perhaps, they infected them with thousands of different diseases and parasites. The authors...even go so far as to argue that these diseases may have been the killing blow that finally pushed the dinosaurs into extinction. [What Bugged the Dinosaurs?] does an excellent job of bringing to life the mini-beasts of the Mesozoic."--Luis Villazon, BBC Focus Magazine "The book deftly guides readers through the science essential to understanding...that it is impossible to describe life in the Cretaceous Period without paying particular attention to insects. Chapter by chapter, the authors introduce a wide range of insect species that bite, swarm, irritate, and even take up residence within and on the dinosaurs. They draw their stories from the fossil record, especially the amber of their expertise, comparing Cretaceous insects with their present-day descendents. Readers follow the authors into the laboratory where they analyze delicate evidence in the form of magnificent color images. Readers who love paleontology will feel the same way about this remarkable book, savoring its fascinating trove of questions and knowledge."--Fred Bortz, Philadelphia Inquirer "The Poinars bring the age of the dinosaurs incredibly to life. Analyzing exotic insects fossilized in Cretaceous amber ... they reconstruct the complex ecology of a hostile prehistoric world inhabited by voracious swarms of insects. The Poinars draw upon tantalizing new evidence ... to provide a unique view of how insects infected with malaria, leishmania, and other pathogens ... could have devastated dinosaur populations. This is a scientific adventure story from the authors whose research inspired Jurassic Park... A fine book full of information found nowhere else."--Prehistoric Times "The reader...will come away from this volume fully accepting of its premise. We will certainly add this thesis to our own compendium because of the evidence presented by the Poinars. What Bugged the Dinosaurs? is positioned to be a definitive treatise that should be a part of any serious paleontologist's library."--Greg Sweatt, Fossil News "There are many theories about what factors ultimately caused the mass extinction of non-avian dinosaurs at the close of the Cretaceous period 65.5 million years ago... Using amber-preserved fossils from the Cretaceous period, George Poinar and Roberta Poinar focus on insects and other invertebrates. The brief, well-written chapters each discuss certain arthopods (or parasitic worms)... Some accounts are not for the squeamish, but they all fascinate... Valuable for all ecology students."--J. C. Kricher, Wheaton College, for CHOICE "This is an assiduously written book for entomologists and parasitologists who would like to learn more on the time-encapsulated data from the Cretaceous, and perhaps stimulate the search for more 'paleoparasites.'"--Raymond L. Jacobson, Parasites and Vectors "This is an enlightening read."--Wildlife Activist "This volume is not simply a dry exposition of an interesting theory. Good descriptive writing makes the ancient landscape the authors explore come alive. The book is highly recommended for undergraduate and graduate collections and public libraries."--Bruce E. Fleury, Science Books & Film "I would certainly recommend this book to anyone interested in dinosaurs and prehistoric life in general. It has changed the way I imagine the Cretaceous and the extinction of the dinosaurs and I am sure it will open up new avenues of thought in this area."--Lucy Goodchild, Microbiology TodayTable of ContentsPreface ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction 1 Chapter 1: Fossils: A Time Capsule 7 Chapter 2: The Cretaceous: A Time of Change 17 Chapter 3: Herbivory 37 Chapter 4: Dinosaurs Competing with Insects 50 Chapter 5: Did Dinosaurs or Insects "Invent" Flowering Plants? 55 Chapter 6: Pollination 57 Chapter 7: Blights and Diseases of Cretaceous Plants 63 Chapter 8: The Cretaceous: Age of Chimeras and Other Oddities 72 Chapter 9: Sanitary Engineers of the Cretaceous 79 Chapter 10: The Case for Entomophagy among Dinosaurs 91 Chapter 11: Gorging on Dinosaurs 102 Chapter 12: Biting Midges 110 Chapter 13: Sand Flies 116 Chapter 14: Mosquitoes 122 Chapter 15: Blackflies 127 Chapter 16: Horseflies and Deerflies 131 Chapter 17: Fleas and Lice 135 Chapter 18: Ticks and Mites 141 Chapter 19: Parasitic Worms 147 Chapter 20: The Discovery of Cretaceous Diseases 157 Chapter 21: Diseases and the Evolution of Pathogens 171 Chapter 22: Insects: The Ultimate Survivors 185 Chapter 23: Extinctions and the K/T Boundary 192 APPENDIX A: Cretaceous Hexapoda 203 APPENDIX B: Key Factors Contributing to the Survival of Terrestrial Animals 219 APPENDIX C: Problems with Evaluating the Fossil Record and Extinctions 221 References 225 Index 253

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Book SynopsisDoes your dog know when you've had a bad day? Can your cat tell that the coffee pot you left on might start a fire? Could a chimpanzee be trained to program your computer? This book debunks some commonly held notions about our furry friends. It argues that it may be romantic to ascribe human qualities to critters, but it's not very realistic.Trade Review"[An] enjoyably written exploration of recent discoveries of modern animal behavior... Wynne is clearly arguing against the view of animal rights advocates such as Peter Singer and Jane Goodall who ascribe human attributes to animals. But Wynne is no reactionary--he strongly sympathizes with those who wish to improve the treatment of animals... It helps his arguments that Wynne is often as entertaining as he is erudite."--Publishers Weekly "In this critical account of selected research, Clive Wynne takes aim at over-sentimental anthropomorphism, particularly on the part of animal-rights advocates. He argues that the degree to which animals are like us cannot be the measure of how much they are worthy of our respect and protection... All this material is presented in a clear informal and entertaining way, enlivened by historical asides."--Sara J. Shettleworth, Nature "Wynne has a pleasant writing style and a knack for engaging the reader... [H]is book offers many insightful descriptions of animal behavior... He seems to take delight in animals, and possesses great knowledge about them, yet he prefers them at arm's length. The constant message is that animals are not people."--Frans B.M. de Waal, Natural History "Wynne's new book provides a timely corrective to many myths about animal minds, without detracting from the wonders of the natural world."--Nicola S. Clayton, Science "[Wynne] is a lively writer with a congenial sense of humor, an obvious passion for truly understanding the minds of animals, and a sincere desire to come to terms with what all this means for the larger philosophical and ethical questions about the place of man and animals in the world."--Stephen Budiansky, Cerebrum: The Dana Forum on Brain Science "A fun read ... packed with clever experiments, intriguing anecdotes, and a delight in the diversity of animal behavior."--Sy Montgomery, Discover "Readers will delight in this insightful, well-referenced book."--Choice "Lucid and witty... Mr. Wynne makes a compelling case against true rationality in animals, but he resists the temptation to reduce animals to mere 'machines,' as Descartes famously did; he is too seized with wonder at the marvels of animal behavior to adopt so barren a model. In the end, Mr. Wynne prefers to accept our fellow animals for what they are, as they are."--Eric Ormsby, New York Sun "An intelligent and balanced discussion of our attitudes towards other species and what (if anything) animals think... A refreshingly skeptical and pugnacious investigation."--P.D. Smith, The Guardian (UK)Table of Contents1 What Are Animals? 1 2 The Secrets of the Honeybee Machine 13 3 How Noble in Reason 46 4 What Is It Like to Be a Bat? 84 5 Talk to Me 106 6 The Pigeon That Saved a Battalion 139 7 Monkey See, Monkey Do? 162 8 Dolphins Divine 195 9 Sandwiches to Go 222 References 245 Acknowledgments 261 Index 263

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Book SynopsisCovers various aspects of pollination biology. This book describes how flowers use colors, shapes, and scents to advertise themselves; how they offer pollen and nectar as rewards; and, how they share complex interactions with beetles, birds, bats, bees, and other creatures. It also covers the ecology of these interactions.Trade ReviewOne of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2011 "In this accessibly written reference, Willmer provides a thorough, up-to-date review of floral biology and pollination... This book is comprehensive and well written, combining informative text and many helpful in-text figures and tables with 39 beautiful color plates. Additionally, the book contains a complete reference section and a useful glossary, which increases the utility of this resource for students or practitioners of pollination ecology."--Choice "[Pollination and Floral Ecology] is a big book that I unhesitatingly consider a 'must-have' reference for anyone working in this field or thinking about entering it... For now, there is nothing like it."--James D. Thomson, Quarterly Review of Biology "[T]he book should largely be used as a reference book, which, again, can be used by those with any level of experience. It is inexpensive relative to the amount of material covered. I commend Willmer for the presumably massive undertaking of the compiling of this vast subject into this relatively small volume. Like other reference books, the material will not become obsolete for many years, and it should be the companion of any pollination ecologist entering the field."--Plant Science Bulletin "Pollination and Floral Ecology is the most comprehensive single-volume reference to all aspects of pollination biology and the first fully up-to-date resource of its kind to appear in decades."--World Book Industry "In Pollination and Floral Ecology Wilmer has certainly achieved her aim, and has provided us with a comprehensive, easy to read summary of the subject, providing somewhat of a one-stop shop for background information on pollination ecology. This book should be recommended as essential reading for any postgraduate or undergraduate working anywhere within the realm of pollination ecology, and will also be an indispensable reference tool for established pollination researchers and ecosystem managers around the world."--Tobias Smith, Austral EcologyTable of ContentsPreface vii Acknowledgments ix Part I: Essentials of Flower Design and Function Chapter 1 Why Pollination Is Interesting 3 Chapter 2 Floral Design and Function 11 Chapter 3 Pollination, Mating, and Reproduction in Plants 55 Chapter 4 Evolution of Flowers, Pollination, and Plant Diversity 88 Part II Floral Advertisements and Floral Rewards Chapter 5 Advertisements 1: Visual Signals and Floral Color 105 Chapter 6 Advertisements 2: Olfactory Signals 134 Chapter 7 Rewards 1: The Biology of Pollen 154 Chapter 8 Rewards 2: The Biology of Nectar 190 Chapter 9 Other Floral Rewards 221 Chapter 10 Rewards and Costs: The Environmental Economics of Pollination 234 Part III Pollination Syndromes? Chapter 11 Types of Flower Visitors: Syndromes, Constancy, and Effectiveness 261 Chapter 12 Generalist Flowers and Generalist Visitors 288 Chapter 13 Pollination by Flies 304 Chapter 14 Pollination by Butterflies and Moths 322 Chapter 15 Pollination by Birds 337 Chapter 16 Pollination by Bats 356 Chapter 17 Pollination by Nonflying Vertebrates and Other Oddities 370 Chapter 18 Pollination by Bees 378 Chapter 19 Wind and Water: Abiotic Pollination 418 Chapter 20 Syndromes and Webs: Specialists and Generalists 434 Part IV Floral Ecology Chapter 21 The Timing and Patterning of Flowering 483 Chapter 22 Living with Other Flowers: Competition and Pollination Ecology 503 Chapter 23 Cheating by Flowers: Cheating the Visitors and Cheating Other Flowers 524 Chapter 24 Flower Visitors as Cheats and the Plants' Responses 542 Chapter 25 The Interactions of Pollination and Herbivory 554 Chapter 26 Pollination Using Florivores: From Brood Site Mutualism to Active Pollination 565 Chapter 27 Pollination in Different Habitats 575 Chapter 28 The Pollination of Crops 605 Chapter 29 The Global Pollination Crisis 620 Appendix 639 Glossary 643 References 663 Subject Index 751 Index of Animal Genera 768 Index of Plant Genera 771

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Book SynopsisBetter Birding reveals the techniques expert birders use to identify a wide array of bird species in the field--quickly and easily. Featuring hundreds of stunning photos and composite plates throughout, this book simplifies identification by organizing the birds you see into groupings and offering strategies specifically tailored to each group. SkiTrade ReviewOne of Audubon's 12 Best Bird Books of 2015 One of The London Free Press' "Great flock of birding books 2015" "[A] serious, immensely informative book... The book is like an expertly guided tour--one that visits wetlands, open country, waterways, forests, shores, and other habitats from Alaska and the Pacific coast to Florida's Dry Tortugas and the Gulf Stream waters off Cape Hatteras, making clear, along the way, what members of each group have in common and how they differ, and, indeed, why each bird is."--BirdWatching Magazine "This book, written by George Armistead and Brian Sullivan, is a refreshed approach to species identification. While most field guides focus primarily on plumage, this approach is 'wide angled' and more holistic with habitat, behavior, and other contextual elements coming into play."--London Free Press "The book covers some water birds and hawks, wrens, flycatchers, swifts and more, but wisely confines itself to groups of birds involving relatively few species. Each section includes numerous photographs and in some cases composite photo illustrations for comparisons. The accounts also include distribution maps."--Tom Palmer, Lakeland Ledger "It comes as no surprise that Better Birding is unashamedly directed towards a North American audience. Yet because the book is devoted to better ID techniques of bird families shared across the Northern Hemisphere or vagrant species which show up on either side of the Atlantic Ocean, many of the chapters contain pages of undoubted interest to a UK audience... The authors should be congratulated in sticking to their chosen parameters and not falling into the trap of producing yet another full field guide to North American birds but instead focusing on/singling out a number of bird groups worthy of special mention."--Another Bird Blog "The first 27 pages of Better Birding should be required reading for students of Birding 101... The writing is clear, concise, and witty when it needs to be. The photographs couldn't be any better. In short, I can't think of a good reason not to have this book."--Kirby Adams, National Parks Traveler "An excellent book... Sullivan and Armistead are two of the best birders in the country, each advancing the ways we understand and enjoy birds... The introductory material ... is particularly strong... The book is richly illustrated with stunning photographs accompanied by concise and informative captions."--Christopher Wood, Program Leader for ebird at Cornell Lab of Ornithology "The writing is ... accessible but full of new observations about birds whose identification I haven't thought about thoroughly or critically enough in many cases... This latest addition to the arsenal combines not just the finer points of identification (many of these original or obscure) but also a fresh way to look at some really wonderful sets of birds... The approach is a holistic one, a very fresh and modern one, and it's the closest book I've seen that hints at how hardcore birders approach a day's birding in terms of hopes and expectations as well as identifications. In the end, it's the sharp photography that sells this book. Mouthwatering images."--Edward S. Brinkley, author of National Wildlife Federation Guide to Birds of North America "This book is extremely well conceptualized. As you read the text it becomes obvious it is written by two experts in the field, and the plates showing side-by-side comparisons of similar-looking species are brilliantly laid out. Since I am a raptor enthusiast, I read the accipiter section first, and was impressed with the level of detail geared towards field ID written in an easy to understand way!"--Jerry Liguori, author of Hawks from Every Angle and Hawks at a Distance "Better Birding ... fills a niche, presenting detailed discussions of bird groups that are not 'sexy' enough to have their own guides, often falling through the cracks of avian publishing, but which pose identification puzzles in the field for even the most experienced birders... The writing style is friendly, expansive, scientifically informed, and draws distinctive pictures of each species."--Donna Schulman, 10,000 Birds blog "Want to be a real birder but don't know how to sharpen your skills? This book will teach you how to identify birds with ease and speed. George Armistead and Brian Sullivan share expert techniques for ID-ing different groups of birds. The book also shows how habitat and behavior can be used as crucial tools for birding."--Emily Silber, Audubon.com "I'm hoping there's a sequel... The writing is clear, concise, and witty when it needs to be. The photographs couldn't be any better. In short, I can't think of a good reason not to have this book."--Kirby Adams, National Parks Traveler "The very readable text is dense and replete with species information and advice on what one can see by taking a wider perspective while birding... [T]his is a well-produced reference for the novice and expert birder alike."--Booklist "So will Better Birding actually help you to be a better birder? Yes, it certainly can. Intermediate birders, especially, will find it extremely useful. And anyone, experts included, should get it if it covers a group you'd like help with."--Birders Library blog "Crisp photography, with side-by-side composite comparisons of similar species accompany detailed, easy-to-read text. The hundreds of photos are nearly worth the price of the book on their own. Above all, Better Birding was a fun read. Engaging, text hits the mark of being specific, but not overly technical. Photos bring birds to life, and show salient identification points described in the text."--Carolina Bird Club Newsletter "Better Birding provides readers with the ability to confidently identify what they are see. Through clear descriptions and by presenting each bird with a history, learning about them through their life story makes the study enjoyable. Better Birding inspires us to make sound identification through the clarity of its descriptions and compelling profiles. This book makes keeping my resolution to be a better birder something I know I can do in the year ahead."--Constantly Explore blog "Providing a foundation to improve readers' birdwatching abilities, the authors furthermore explain why birding is cool. Recommended for all readers who wish to become better birders."--Library Journal "Before I go any further let me mention the gorgeous photographs in this book (e.g. check out the breeding plumage Pacific Loon on page 28. Wow!). As a person who loves to look at beautiful birds, I enjoy this element of the book greatly. If you do nothing else but read the Introduction to tile book, you will learn things to help you identify more birds."--William Saur, The Passionate Birder Blog "Aimed at advanced birders, the book offers new ways to think about identifying selected groups of species... This is a lovely book; it is profusely illustrated with color photographs, a number of which show various views of similar bird species in flight on two-page spreads."--Choice "The authors have written a book that provides a new avenue of exploration for the fine-tuning of our birding skills... A valuable addition to the library of the birder, ornithologist, and natural history student."--Howard O. Clark, Jr., Western North American Naturalist "I have read the volume with an appetite I can't quite satisfy. Tips and techniques to becoming a better birder abound as photos and text combine to paint clear pictures of what it takes to improve your birding skills. A great read full of great info!"--North Durham Nature Newsletter "This richly illustrated volume provides numerous insights into enhancing one's experience of birding... Any library with readers interested in birds and birding should certainly acquire this volume, priced incredibly low for a work full of color photography. Academic libraries supporting programs in zoology or ornithology should also consider it."--Mark Schumacher, ARBATable of ContentsAcknowledgments 8 Introduction 10 Wide-Angle Birding: Be the Bird, See the Bird 11 Becoming a "Good Birder": Understanding the Basics 12 Birding Mentors 26 Why Birding Is Cool 26 Waterbirds Loons 29 Swans 45 Mallard and Monochromatic "Mallards" 57 White Herons 69 Coastal Birds Eiders 83 Brachyramphus Murrelets 93 Pacific Cormorants 103 Seabirds Sulids: Northern Gannet and Boobies 115 Tropical Terns 129 Atlantic Gadflies 137 Large Shorebirds Curlews 149 Godwits 161 Skulkers Marsh Sparrows 175 Small Wrens (Troglodytes and Cistothorus) 187 Birds of Forest and Edge Accipiters 199 American Rosefinches 211 Aerial Insectivores Swifts 221 Night Birds Screech-Owls: An "Otus" and the Megascops 231 Nighthawks 241 Open-Country Birds Yellow-bellied Kingbirds 253 Black Corvids: Crows and Ravens 265 Pipits 281 Longspurs 293 Cowbirds 303 Index 312

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Book SynopsisThe three main missions of any organism - growing, reproducing, and surviving - depend on encounters with food and mates, and on avoiding encounters with predators. This book offers a mechanistic approach to the study of ocean ecology by exploring biological interactions in plankton at the individual level.Trade Review"I found the ordering and summary of materials, especially those applying encounter theories directly, to be helpful in ordering my own thinking. The ideas will be broadly familiar to experts in the field, but Kiorboe's clean, direct presentations pull them together in a rewarding way; your study time will be well spent. For aspiring experts, this mechanistic approach is important to master, and working through this book will give you a great running start."--Charles B. Miller, Journal of Plankton Research "What could be deadly dull material is enlivened by evocative examples from Kiorboe's extensive observations of plankton... One cannot read this book without gaining a much fuller appreciation of how fluid motion influences life in the sea."--New Biological BooksTable of ContentsList of Illustrations ix List of Tables xiii Preface xv CHAPTER ONE: Introduction 1 1.1 Biological Oceanography--Marine Biology--Ocean Ecology 1 1.2 The Encounter Problem 4 1.3 This Book 8 CHAPTER TWO: Random Walk and Diffusion 10 2.1 Random Walk and Diffusion 10 2.2 Example: Bacterial Motility 14 2.3 Fick's First Law 17 2.4 Diffusion to or from a Sphere 18 2.5 Feeding on Solutes 20 2.6 Maximum and Optimum Cell Size 22 2.7 Diatoms: Large yet Small 24 2.8 Diffusion Feeding 26 2.9 Non- Steady- State Diffusion: Feeding in Nauplii 28 2.10 Bacteria Colonizing a Sphere 30 2.11 Effect of Shape 31 2.12 Flux from a Sphere (or a Point Source): Chemical Signals 32 CHAPTER THREE: Diffusion and Advection 35 3.1 Moving Fluids 35 3.2 Viscosity, Diffusivity, Re, and Pe 35 3.3 Flow around a Sinking Sphere 37 3.4 Mass Transport to a Sinking Sphere 39 3.5 Example: Oxygen Distribution around a Sinking Sphere 40 3.6 Examples: Osmotrophs, Diffusion Feeders, and Bacterial Colonization of Sinking Particles 43 3.7 Eff ect of Turbulence on Mass Transport: Re, Pe, and Sh for Turbulence 45 3.8 Marine Snow Solute Plumes: Small- Scale Heterogeneity 49 3.9 The Chemical Trail: Mate Finding in Copepods 50 CHAPTER FOUR: Particle Encounter by Advection 57 4.1 Direct Interception versus Remote Detection 57 4.2 Particle Encounter by Direct Interception: Flagellate Feeding 58 4.3 Bacteria Colonizing Particles Revisited: Comparison of Encounter Mechanisms 60 4.4 Direct Interception: Coagulation and Marine Snow Formation 60 4.5 Remote Prey Detection: Encountering Prey in Calm Water 67 4.6 Turbulence and Predator- Prey Encounter Rates 69 4.7 Example: Feeding of the Copepod Acartia tonsa in Turbulence 72 4.8 When Is Turbulence Important for Enhancing Predator-Prey Contact Rates? 74 4.9 On the Downhill Side: Negative Eff ects of Turbulence on Predator-Prey Interactions 75 4.10 Encounter Rates and Motility Patterns: Ballistic versus Diffusive Motility 77 CHAPTER FIVE: Hydromechanical Signals in the Plankton 83 5.1 Copepod Sensory Biology 83 5.2 Decomposition of a Fluid Signal: Deformation and Vorticity 85 5.3 Signal Strength: Prey Perceiving Predator 87 5.4 Signal Strength: Predator Perceiving Prey 88 5.5 To What Flow Components Does a Copepod Respond? 89 5.6 Sensitivity to Hydrodynamic Signals 91 5.7 Predator and Prey Reaction Distances: Generation of a Hydrodynamic Signal 91 5.8 Attack or Flee--the Dilemma of a Parasitic Copepod 95 5.9 Maximal Signals, Optimal Sensitivity, and the Role of Turbulence 96 5.10 The Evolutionary Arms Race 98 CHAPTER SIX: Zooplankton Feeding Rates and Bioenergetics 101 6.1 Functional Response in Ingestion Rate to Prey Concentration 101 6.2 Example: The Functional Response in Oithona davisae 104 6.3 Other Functional Responses 105 6.4 The Components of Predation: Prey Selection 107 6.5 Prey Switching 113 6.6 Bioenergetics: Conversion of Food to Growth and Reproduction 113 6.7 Specific Dynamic Action: Egg Production Effi ciency in a Copepod 115 6.8 Scaling of Feeding and Growth Rates 117 6.9 Feast and Famine in the Plankton 118 CHAPTER SEVEN: Population Dynamics and Interactions 122 7.1 From Individual to Population 122 7.2 The Dynamics of a Single Population: Phytoplankton Blooms 123 7.3 Phytoplankton Population Dynamics and Aggregate Formation 125 7.4 Phytoplankton Growth and Light Limitation 127 7.5 Scaling of Growth and Mortality Rates 128 7.6 Populations with Age Structure: Life Tables 130 7.7 Behavior and Population Dynamics: Critical Population Size and Allee Eff ects 133 7.8 Life- History Strategies 135 7.9 Interacting Populations 140 7.10 From Individual to Population 149 CHAPTER EIGHT: Structure and Function of Pelagic Food Webs 151 8.1 Two Pathways in Pelagic Food Webs 152 8.2 Light and Vertical Mixing: Conditions for Phytoplankton Development 154 8.3 Bud getary Constraints: Nutrient Input and Sinking Flux 155 8.4 Cell Size, Water-Column Structure, and Nutrient Availability: Empirical Evidence 158 8.5 Cell Size and Nutrient Uptake 161 8.6 Cell Size, Turbulence, and Sinking 162 8.7 Cell Size, Turbulence, and Light 164 8.8 Why Are Not All Phytoplankters Small? The Signifi cance of Predation 165 8.9 Hydrodynamic Control of Pelagic Food- Web Structure: Examples 166 8.10 Species Diversity: The Paradox of the Plankton 170 8.11 Fisheries and Trophic Effi ciency 173 8.12 Fertilizing the Ocean--Increasing the Fishery and Preventing Global Warming? 177 References 183 Index 205

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Book SynopsisA photographic guide to the birds of eastern North America. It presents key identification features of each bird. It covers entire eastern half of mainland North America and the arctic and subarctic territorial islands of the US and Canada.Trade ReviewOne of Joel Lerner's (The Washington Post) The Year's Best Gardening Books "The ultimate handbook to accompany you in the field or while bird watching at home... [A]n excellent visual reference for the identification of birds."--Joel Lerner, Washington Post "Brian Small and co-author Paul Sterry have taken the photo-based field guide to a new level. Their new books are beautifully designed and well written. Photos are tack-sharp, and tightly cropped, giving close-up views of each bird."--Matt Mendenhall, Birder's World "Whether you are a birding fanatic or someone who enjoys looking in their backyard to see what shows up, there is a new bird guide that will fill your need... With great photos of more than 500 species, this is a wonderful photographic guide making identification of birds that much easier. Both the Eastern and Western versions are great gift ideas."--Ken Moran, New York Post "The large, excellent photos, combined with the overall design, make this probably the most attractive general field guide I've seen... This is the first field guide that I would recommend to bird photography aficionados solely on the merit of the pictures, irrespective of its value as a field guide. Finally, the exceptional, large photographs make these an attractive primary field guide option for new and burgeoning birders."--Grant McCreary, Birder's Library "These guides will be most useful for intermediate level birders."--Ian Paulsen, Birdbooker Report "Excellent state-of-the art digital photos and comprehensive, up-to-date data on North American birds... Comparable guides include Ted Floyd's Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America and Edward Brinkley's National Wildlife Federation (NWF) Field Guide to Birds of North America. All three titles are excellent. However, the Sterry-Small guide's larger photos aid identification and highlight variable plumage. Corner insets identify groups of birds for easier browsing. Birders will love the portability, excellent photography, habitat, and conservation information."--Sally Bickley, Library Journal "This pair of photographic guides provides superb quality photographic images which are well up to the best of modern standards. If your American photo-guides are a few years old, now is the time to update them. The text is surprisingly detailed and concisely covers all plumages, as well as 'Status and Habitat,' 'Voice,' and 'Observation tips,' and the distribution maps are detailed and clear. These are now the best photographic guides for North America and exceptional value-for-money too."--Steve Gantlett, Birding World "Flat-out gorgeous. We see the birds standing, swimming and in flight. There's the usual field buide-style information--maps of their range, what they sound like, etc.--but this book seems to make things uniquely clear."--Sandy Bauers, Philadelphia Inquirer "Birds of Eastern North America: A Photographic Guide and Birds of Western North America: A Photographic Guide should be a welcome addition to the libraries of serious birders as well as those who enjoy birdwatching only from their own backyard feeders... I recommend both books."--Brad Sylvester, Manchester Bird Watching Examiner "The photos in these books are large, crisp and clear... They are durable field guides that easily slip into a backpack or even a large pocket in an overcoat, but their pictures are good enough to be a coffee table book... Of all the various field guides I have ever seen, these ... are by far the best."--James Swan, ESPNOutdoors.com "Outstanding... The photos are of such superb detail you expect them to fly off the pages."--Bill Cochran, Roanoke Times "Stunning. This was the first word that came to mind upon cracking open these new guides... The photography alone is worth owning both Eastern and Western editions. Even so, the accompanying text is fantastic too."--Eddie Callaway, Birdfreak.com "The guides are, in a word, gorgeous--the photos are crisp (the latest digital technology captures rich detail) and the page layout is superb."--Fannie Peczenik, Pittsburgh Bird Watching Examiner "Paul Sterry and Brian Small have created books with large, superior photos placed on pages designed to be lively and interesting. The text accompanying each species is three or four times as long as what you find in most ID books. It's pertinent and sharply written."--Jim Williams, Minneapolis Star Tribune "I was immediately captivated by the stunning photographs... This one's a keeper."--George Smith, Down East.com "[Birds of Eastern North America] uses 1,118 exceptional color photographs to set it apart from the many other field guides in book stores. And somehow the designer managed to increase the image size so that every species is clearly and vibrantly depicted. Many of the smaller species appear at almost life size. This guide should appeal to beginning and experienced birders alike."--Scott Shalaway, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette "The Sterry-Small guides will no doubt set new benchmarks for photo quality and precise reproduction. Inset photos cover seasonal and gender variations in plumage, picture birds in flight or show groups of birds for easier identification. Sterry's well-organized descriptions offer bird-spotting tips and information on habitat, feeding styles and conservation status. Range maps compile the latest data from the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology."--Valerie Sudol, New Jersey Newsroom "A lot of clever thought went into the design of this new birding guide, and you'll find it easy to use plus especially helpful and simply jam-packed with lots of useful information."--James Drake, Southern Maryland Newspapers "A fine pair of guides for North America... Small's photos are big, bright, and tack-sharp... Sterry's generous accounts supplement the accompanying photographs well... worthwhile acquisitions for field guide consumers and completists alike."--Mike Bergin, 10,000 Birds "Informative and accessible text, up-to-date maps, and stunning color photographs. Images have been carefully selected to convey both the sheer beauty and the key identification features of each bird, and many of the photos are larger than those found in most other guides."--OSNA Birds "I never used to be very keen on photographic field guides for birds until I perused these two volumes... An excellent volume set for the North American birder, complete with lavish photos larger than those seen in other field guides, useful, up-to-date range maps and an easy-to-use format."--David Bird, Montreal Gazette "The Sterry/Small guides are an innovative, useful addition to the arsenal of tools available to help us improve our birding skills. These outstanding guides deserve a place in your pocket, bookshelf, nightstand and bathroom."--Wayne Mones, Audubon Magazine web site "The Sterry and Small field guide is good in that the photographs, which are outstanding, are quite large for a book small enough to fit into a big pocket. Colored bars with family names across the top of each page make it quick and easy to locate the warblers, wrens, etc. Range maps include all of North America, not just the eastern region. Status, habitat and observation tips are given for each species."--Marcia Davis, Knoxville News Sentinel "Deserve a perch in your birding library. Birds of Western North America and its companion guide Birds of Eastern North America are photographic field guides, with clear, well-defined full-color photos for ease of identification."--David Buchanan, Grand Junctions Sentinel "Sterry and Small have produced what I believe is the finest photographic field guide of eastern birds... The photographs in this guide are crisp, informative and, in many cases, stunning."--Herb Wilson, Portland Press Herald "Compact and modestly priced, Birds of Eastern North America is a beautiful field guide (in fact, one of the best I've seen) and the top-notch photos are accompanied by oodles of informative facts and figures about the species illustrated."--Ron Tott, The Travel Editor "Fabulous photographic field guides... Birds of Eastern North America: A Photographic Guide, and its companion piece Birds of Western North America, are a tremendous addition to any library of bird identification literature... Even those accustomed to an artist's illustration rather than photography to highlight identification features will find themselves reaching for these volumes time after time to confirm a field sighting of a bird in its natural habitat."--Birding Business "Many of the more recent field guides to birds are illustrated with high-quality photographs. The present offerings, produced by well-respected authors/photographers Sterry and Small, are additional fine examples... They are ... beautiful, exceptionally well-produced volumes that will be found in most libraries with comprehensive ornithological holdings and on the shelves of many birders."--Choice "I highly recommend these books as field guides for intermediate birders ... and as home study guides for beginners and armchair naturalists. Of course every avid birders will want these guides as well."--Dan Kunkle, Wildlife Activist "These indispensable guides will quickly become the preferred photographic guides for new and experienced birders alike. The clear layout will help novices easily identify the birds they see, while the superb photographs will help seasoned birders confirm identifications."--Adventure Sports Outdoors "With these volumes, we've at last found photographic guides that are as easy to identify birds from as I.D. books that feature paintings... [These] photographic guides aren't pocket size, but they're small enough that we'll carry them in the car and, with binoculars, in a pack on a serious birding outing. We expect to spend some enjoyable winter evenings browsing through them, enjoying the superb photos, and readable text, looking up old friends and preparing to meet new ones."--Bob and Linda Steiner, The Derrick "The most impressive feature of this field guide is the photography. Each species account contains one to several photographs: most are large and sharp and clearly illustrate useful details for identification... It would make a nice addition to any collection of bird guides, if nothing else for the beautiful photographs."--Amber N. Wiewel, Iowa Bird Life "These guides are certainly worthy as a secondary field guide and photographic reference. No question, they are certainly the best photographic guides currently available."--Alan Knue, South Dakota Bird Notes "Sterry and Small have created the best photograph based field guides I have seen for North American birds."--Michael J. Andersen, Quarterly Review of Biology "[T]hese [two] books do have truly wonderful photographs and written descriptions that are useful in identifying and differentiating species. The guides could be especially useful to the casual birder. If you consider the cost of the paperback edition, they are an attractive, affordable addition to one's library."--Clayton M. White, Western North American Naturalist "With the proliferation of options, choosing a good field guide is increasingly a question of personal preference. Most of my casual birder friends prefer photographic guides; most keen birders seem to prefer traditional guides with paintings. I would recommend this book for novice birders and for those wanting to supplement a more traditional guide."--Mark Gawn, Canadian Field-Naturalist "The large, well-composed and well-edited photographs, combined with good text and range maps, may very well place these as the top photographic guides for North America."--Nathan Hentze, Discovery "Exceptionally well done. Double-page layouts of text and maps on the left and digitally enhanced photos of the matching birds on the right make these guides easy to use in the field."--John Riutta, Bird Watcher's Digest "Birds of Western North America and the Birds of Eastern North America are quite simply the most lavishly illustrated photographic guides to date of North American avifauna. Because of that fact, perhaps amateur and advanced birders will not object to procuring both books together when exploring such birding hot spots as the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas and elsewhere."--Gene Wilhelm, Pennsylvania Birds

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Book SynopsisA photographic guide to the birds of western North America. It covers entire western half of mainland North America (excluding Mexico) and the arctic and subarctic territorial islands of the US and Canada (excluding Hawaii). It describes key identification features of each bird.Trade Review"Fills a real need for a comprehensive regional guide. Where most are sketchy at best, noting only the most common birds, Sterry and Small cover more than 500 species an variants--including birds that migrate down the Pacific and Rocky Mountain flyways and over the eastern Pacific Ocean, as well as Eastern birds known to visit... Sterry and Small present their information in an organized, easy-to-use manner. Small's photos are uniformly excellent, clearly showing fine detail in patterns and colors; the helpful layout makes it easy to compare similar-looking birds, meaning slight differences will be apparent even to novice birders... It should be welcomed into the backpacks of western U.S. birders."--Publishers Weekly "Brian Small and co-author Paul Sterry have taken the photo-based field guide to a new level. Their new books are beautifully designed and well written. Photos are tack-sharp, and tightly cropped, giving close-up views of each bird."--Matt Mendenhall, Birder's World "Whether you are a birding fanatic or someone who enjoys looking in their backyard to see what shows up, there is a new bird guide that will fill your need... With great photos of more than 500 species, this is a wonderful photographic guide making identification of birds that much easier. Both the Eastern and Western versions are great gift ideas."--Ken Moran, New York Post "The large, excellent photos, combined with the overall design, make this probably the most attractive general field guide I've seen... This is the first field guide that I would recommend to bird photography aficionados solely on the merit of the pictures, irrespective of its value as a field guide. Finally, the exceptional, large photographs make these an attractive primary field guide option for new and burgeoning birders."--Grant McCreary, Birder's Library "These guides will be most useful for intermediate level birders."--Ian Paulsen, Birdbooker Report "Excellent state-of-the art digital photos and comprehensive, up-to-date data on North American birds... Comparable guides include Ted Floyd's Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America and Edward Brinkley's National Wildlife Federation (NWF) Field Guide to Birds of North America. All three titles are excellent. However, the Sterry-Small guide's larger photos aid identification and highlight variable plumage. Corner insets identify groups of birds for easier browsing. Birders will love the portability, excellent photography, habitat, and conservation information."--Sally Bickley, Library Journal "This pair of photographic guides provides superb quality photographic images which are well up to the best of modern standards. If your American photo-guides are a few years old, now is the time to update them. The text is surprisingly detailed and concisely covers all plumages, as well as 'Status and Habitat,' 'Voice,' and 'Observation tips,' and the distribution maps are detailed and clear. These are now the best photographic guides for North America and exceptional value-for-money too."--Steve Gantlett, Birding World "Flat-out gorgeous. We see the birds standing, swimming and in flight. There's the usual field buide-style information--maps of their range, what they sound like, etc.--but this book seems to make things uniquely clear."--Sandy Bauers, Philadelphia Inquirer "Birds of Eastern North America: A Photographic Guide and Birds of Western North America: A Photographic Guide should be a welcome addition to the libraries of serious birders as well as those who enjoy birdwatching only from their own backyard feeders... I recommend both books."--Brad Sylvester, Manchester Bird Watching Examiner "The guides are, in a word, gorgeous--the photos are crisp (the latest digital technology captures rich detail) and the page layout is superb."--Fannie Peczenik, Pittsburgh Bird Watching Examiner "The photos in these books are large, crisp and clear... They are durable field guides that easily slip into a backpack or even a large pocket in an overcoat, but their pictures are good enough to be a coffee table book... Of all the various field guides I have ever seen, these ... are by far the best."--James Swan, ESPNOutdoors.com "Outstanding... The photos are of such superb detail you expect them to fly off the pages."--Bill Cochran, Roanoke Times "Stunning. This was the first word that came to mind upon cracking open these new guides... The photography alone is worth owning both Eastern and Western editions. Even so, the accompanying text is fantastic too."--Eddie Callaway, Birdfreak.com "I was immediately captivated by the stunning photographs... This one's a keeper."--George Smith, Down East.com "Paul Sterry and Brian Small have created books with large, superior photos placed on pages designed to be lively and interesting. The text accompanying each species is three or four times as long as what you find in most ID books. It's pertinent and sharply written."--Jim Williams, Minneapolis Star Tribune "A fine pair of guides for North America... Small's photos are big, bright, and tack-sharp... Sterry's generous accounts supplement the accompanying photographs well... worthwhile acquisitions for field guide consumers and completists alike."--Mike Bergin, 10,000 Birds "Informative and accessible text, up-to-date maps, and stunning color photographs. Images have been carefully selected to convey both the sheer beauty and the key identification features of each bird, and many of the photos are larger than those found in most other guides."--OSNA Birds "I never used to be very keen on photographic field guides for birds until I perused these two volumes... An excellent volume set for the North American birder, complete with lavish photos larger than those seen in other field guides, useful, up-to-date range maps and an easy-to-use format."--David Bird, Montreal Gazette "The Sterry/Small guides are an innovative, useful addition to the arsenal of tools available to help us improve our birding skills. These outstanding guides deserve a place in your pocket, bookshelf, nightstand and bathroom."--Wayne Mones, Audubon Magazine web site "Deserve a perch in your birding library. Birds of Western North America and its companion guide Birds of Eastern North America are photographic field guides, with clear, well-defined full-color photos for ease of identification."--David Buchanan, Grand Junctions Sentinel "Certainly the best and most lavishly illustrated photographic guide to the birds of western North America that I have seen."--Fatbirder "Fabulous photographic field guides... Birds of Eastern North America: A Photographic Guide, and its companion piece Birds of Western North America, are a tremendous addition to any library of bird identification literature... Even those accustomed to an artist's illustration rather than photography to highlight identification features will find themselves reaching for these volumes time after time to confirm a field sighting of a bird in its natural habitat."--Birding Business "These indispensable guides will quickly become the preferred photographic guides for new and experienced birders alike. The clear layout will help novices easily identify the birds they see, while the superb photographs will help seasoned birders confirm identifications."--Adventure Sports Outdoors "With these volumes, we've at last found photographic guides that are as easy to identify birds from as I.D. books that feature paintings... [These] photographic guides aren't pocket size, but they're small enough that we'll carry them in the car and, with binoculars, in a pack on a serious birding outing. We expect to spend some enjoyable winter evenings browsing through them, enjoying the superb photos, and readable text, looking up old friends and preparing to meet new ones."--Bob and Linda Steiner, The Derrick "The title really does do this book justice: the amazing photographs are certainly the focus of this colorful field guide. This field guide is also reasonably priced and won't burn your budget... I would recommend this guide for a beginner bird-watcher who is eager to see some beautiful photographs and quality range maps displayed in a user-friendly format."--Cory J. Gregory, Iowa Bird Life "These guides are certainly worthy as a secondary field guide and photographic reference. No question, they are certainly the best photographic guides currently available."--Alan Knue, South Dakota Bird Notes "Sterry and Small have created the best photograph based field guides I have seen for North American birds."--Michael J. Andersen, Quarterly Review of Biology "[T]hese [two] books do have truly wonderful photographs and written descriptions that are useful in identifying and differentiating species. The guides could be especially useful to the casual birder. If you consider the cost of the paperback edition, they are an attractive, affordable addition to one's library."--Clayton M. White, Western North American Naturalist "With the proliferation of options, choosing a good field guide is increasingly a question of personal preference. Most of my casual birder friends prefer photographic guides; most keen birders seem to prefer traditional guides with paintings. I would recommend this book for novice birders and for those wanting to supplement a more traditional guide."--Mark Gawn, Canadian Field-Naturalist "The large, well-composed and well-edited photographs, combined with good text and range maps, may very well place these as the top photographic guides for North America."--Nathan Hentze, Discovery "Birds of Western North America and the Birds of Eastern North America are quite simply the most lavishly illustrated photographic guides to date of North American avifauna. Because of that fact, perhaps amateur and advanced birders will not object to procuring both books together when exploring such birding hot spots as the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas and elsewhere."--Gene Wilhelm, Pennsylvania Birds

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Book SynopsisConus is the largest genus of animals in the sea, occurring throughout the world's tropical and subtropical oceans and contributing significantly to marine biodiversity. This title identifies 53 valid species of the southeastern United States and the Caribbean, a region that supports a diverse but taxonomically challenging group of Conus.Trade Review"The comprehensive and clearly written species accounts, ranging from two to seven pages in length, occupy the bulk of the book. The volume is lavishly illustrated with 2,000-plus photos, presenting multiple images showing the variation of shapes and colors within each species. A valuable resource for anyone interested in cone shells in general and the mollusks of the tropical western Atlantic Ocean."--Choice "Conus is for the serious naturalist and a must for the hard-core beachcomber. Kohn, a foremost authority on cone snails, displays his scholarship on every page, with 2,100 mesmerizing color shell photographs of these fascinating gastropods."--Bill Cannon, Scientist's Bookshelf "This is a beautifully written and illustrated book that details the taxonomy and phylogenetic relationships of western Atlantic Conus... The author, Alan J. Kohn, is widely recognized as the world's premier scientific authority on the Conidae. Here, he has poured his deep passion for his subject into a scientific and technical masterpiece."--Steven Tettelbach, East Coast Shellfish Growers AssociationTable of ContentsPreface ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction 1 Abbreviations Used in the Text 7 1 Setting the Stage: Approaches 9 2 Setting the Stage: The Geological Theater and the Evolutionary Play 18 3 This Book and How to Use it 32 4 Behind the Scenes: Technical Aids to the Species Accounts 44 5 Species Accounts 56 Conus granulatus Linnaeus 56 Conus glenni Petuch 62 Conus ritae Petuch 64 Conus jaspideus Gmelin 67 Conus pealii Green 74 Conus stearnsii Conrad 80 Conus pusio Hwass in Bruguiere 84 Conus mindanus Hwass in Bruguiere 89 Conus bahamensis Vink and Rockel 95 Conus puncticulatus Hwass in Bruguiere 97 Conus mazei Deshayes 106 Conus rainesae McGinty 114 Conus janowskyae (Tucker and Tenorio) 117 Conus armiger Crosse 120 Conus sauros Garcia 126 Conus lenhilli Cargile 129 Conus delessertii Recluz 130 Conus centurio Born 137 Conus cedonulli Linnaeus 146 Conus pseudaurantius Vink and von Cosel 156 Conus aurantius Hwass in Bruguiere 160 Conus mappa [Lightfoot] 164 Conus curassaviensis Bruguiere 174 Conus regius Gmelin 178 Conus cardinalis Hwass in Bruguiere 188 Conus arangoi Sarasua 204 Conus explorator Vink 206 Conus hieroglyphus Duclos 209 Conus ziczac Megerle von Muhlfeld 212 Conus sahlbergi da Motta and Harland 217 Conus daucus Hwass in Bruguiere 226 Conus amphiurgus Dall 239 Conus sanderi Wils and Moolenbeek 250 Conus eversoni Petuch 255 C. ceruttii Cargile 257 Conus ignotus Cargile 260 Conus cancellatus Hwass in Bruguiere 264 Conus stimpsoni Dall 274 Conus villepinii Fischer and Bernardi 281 Conus attenuatus Reeve 288 Conus flavescens Sowerby I 296 Conus cingulatus Lamarck 302 Conus largillierti Kiener 306 Conus anabathrum Crosse 312 Conus gibsonsmithorum Petuch 324 Conus garciai da Motta 329 Conus harlandi Petuch 334 Conus sunderlandi Petuch 340 Conus spurius Gmelin 345 Conus mus Hwass in Bruguiere 358 Conus patae Abbott 363 Conus ermineus Born 367 Conus lightbourni Petuch 379 Nomina dubia 382 6 Synthesis and Conclusions 395 Appendix 1. Molecular Phylogeny of Conus 419 Appendix 2. Morphology-Based Phylogeny of Conus 422 General Glossary 425 Bibliography 431 Index of Species-group Names 449 General Index 453

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Book SynopsisA guide to identifying migrant raptors. It illustrates twenty-nine species in various lighting situations and settings. It features 558 color photos and 896 black-and-white images depicting plumage and shape characteristics. It covers various aspects of in-flight hawk identification, including flight style and behavior.Trade Review"If you love watching hawks, Liguori's Hawks at a Distance is an essential aid which will help build your identification skills."--Wayne Mones, Audubon Magazine "A must-have for raptor people!"--Ian Paulsen, Birdbooker Report "Possibly the best-ever raptor identification guide in print... If you are serious about identifying birds of prey, whether at a hawk-watch site, or during your everyday birding, the advances made by the author with this book can assist you in achieving that goal in ways few books have done previously... Highly recommended."--William P. Mueller, Bluebird's Laugh "Hawks at a Distance is an advanced study written by an authority in raptors. Mr. Liguori's book is great to be read with attention and what you learn you will treasure greatly if you are an active birder."--H.J. Ruiz, My Backyard Visitors "This is an absolute 'must have' for anyone who has ever even briefly wondered, 'What kind of hawk was that?' ... Practical and beautiful... If you have even the slightest interest in birds, you should own this book."--Alan Speakman, eBirdseed.com "Jerry Liguori has found a way to communicate to birders of all ages and skill levels how he can identify hawks at a distance. He provides us with a study tool that is the next best thing to being with him atop a ridge near a hawk flyway... By putting in the work to study these photos and internalizing the helpful text explaining what is shown in each photo, you would be ready to join a hawk-watch group and dazzle them with your advanced skills."--Robert Mortensen, Birding is Fun "This book has a lot to offer hawk watchers of all levels of experience."--A Charm of Finches "Hawks at a Distance is a neat little book and valuable reference."--Angus Wilson, OceanWanderers Book Shelf "A remarkable and important field guide."--Greg Laden, Science blogs "Every birder with an interest in hawks should own this book. And really, what birder isn't interested in hawks? Show me a birder that doesn't enjoy an afternoon at a good hawk-watch, and I'll show you a dog that doesn't like cheese."--Greg Niese, North American Birding "Hawks at a Distance provides a great way to look at shape and form of raptors, and not just plumage... Hawks at a Distance is for all birders, not just hawk aficionados. The ability to identify hawks at a distance is crucial to all bird counts and to all birding situations."--Birdfreak.com "Liguori's innovation is to show these magnificent birds as you most often actually see them--in flight and at a distance. He does show one close-up shot of most of the species, but he follows that with many shots of the bird in action from different angles. Studying these excellent pictures gives one a sense of the shape of the bird, which is one of the most indicative traits for identification, and it allows you to see those obvious field marks that might actually be seen from a great distance."--The Nature of Things "If you have any interest in hawk watching you need this book... It truly is a revolutionary guide and will certainly be a tool for teaching many a hawk watcher in the coming years. I would tell even the most seasoned of birders to add this to their collection... [It] will surely be one of, if not the most influential hawk watching guide ever."--Utah Birders "Certainly a book for aspiring as well as veteran hawk-watchers."--Rosyfinch Ramblings "All-in-all, this book is a must have for any hawk watcher or any birder that wants to learn more about hawk identification. I am in love with the book and haven't been able to put it down for a few weeks now. I would recommend that you use this book in combination with Jerry Liguori's first book, Hawks from Every Angle. These two books are, and will be for quite some time, the bibles of hawk watching."--Drew Weber, Nemesis Bird "Concise and easy to follow... Will be an invaluable tool if you are a hawk watcher."--Birds from Behind "I heartily recommend this book to North American raptor enthusiasts, but also to anyone with a general interest in raptors, but especially for birders planning a birding trip to North America where it will sit happily in a pocket or rucksack next to a less specific field guide."--Phil Slade, Another Bird Blog "An intriguing concept--take a few hundred of the most distant, silhouetted, weird angle photos and combine them into a field guide... Very useful to raptor enthusiasts and hawk counters!"--Christian Artuso "A useful tool that would be a welcome addition to any birders library."--Scott Arvin, The Cardinal, Indiana Audubon Society "This book certainly gives a new perspective, and hope, to viewing those 'too-far-to-identify' raptors. The raptor enthusiast and the avid birder who's always trying to expand his knowledge of advanced identification tips will appreciate this book."--Avian Review "For anyone that spends time at our local hawkwatch at Lighthouse Point, this latest book from author and photographer Jerry Liguori, entitled Hawks at a Distance is a must-have!"--Naturescape Images "Liguori's new book gives the would-be hawkwatcher a head start, significantly closing the gap between rookie and expert with his simple and comprehensive approach... Hawkwatchers are going to be the primary audience for this book, but anyone interested in pushing the physical boundaries of their bird identification to the horizon should pick it up. You won't be disappointed."--The Drinking Bird "If you love raptors Liguori's new book will be an essential tool in advancing your identification skills"--Sierra Activist "This follow-up to Hawks from Every Angle is jam-packed with all aspects of in-flight hawk identification tips."--Nina Harfmann, Nature Remains "Hawks at a Distance: Identification of Migrant Raptors by Jerry Liguori is an exceptional book. I have always wanted to become better at raptor identification and Liguori hit the nail on the head for me with this book... If you want to progress to the next level of birding I think Hawks at a Distance will help you along."--Flying Mullet "[The guide] uses digital photography to present the birds as we might see them in real life. Liguori focuses on twenty-nine species of raptor, depicting their flight patterns and the color of their plumage as it varies with background light; there's also a very useful series of images in black and white of the raptors from various angles."--Fannie Peczenik, Pittsburgh Bird Watching Examiner "Raptor fans, and especially anyone who spends time at hawk watches, will definitely want a copy of Liguori's Hawks at a Distance. It's quite simply the best guide to hawks at, well, a distance. [It will] be useful to any birder due to its different approach and the encouragement it gives to push the limits of our identification skills to the horizon (literally)."--Grant McCreary, Birder's Library "You not only get a series of very small images--just what you'd see with your binoculars trained on the high flyer, but also a good close image too. Between the two you can see how the ID features are likely to seem in the field and learn how to do without the close up and make a pretty good stab at what that bird is kettling up to the heavens."--Fat Birder "If you love hawk watching and want to get beyond accipiter vs. buteo, then you should definitely look at Hawks at a Distance."--Anne Hanley, Trumpter "Hawks at a Distance does a better job of putting names to those dots over the next ridge than anything else that's out there."--Ned Keller, The Cerulean "Considerable forethought took place at the conception of the idea for this book, because it is easy to read and to understand, making it a viable resource for the beginner and the experienced birder alike."--KaHolly Blog "This book helps me understand raptors in ways I never thought possible... Liguori's knowledge and skill of identifying raptors is simply unsurpassed. His ability to tie together actual knowledge with photos makes for both an informative and yet concise book."--Cory Gregory's Birding Blog "Birders schooled in the old 'field marks' method of bird identification will find Liguori's Hawks at a Distance startling--and ultimately, I think, revelatory."--Rick Wright, ABA blog "For those of you wishing to push your hawk-watching skills to new levels, grab your binoculars and get a copy as soon as you can!"--Digiscoping Blog "Hawks at a Distance offers bird watchers of all experience levels the opportunity to learn a skill that has long been considered a prized specialty. Extensive color photographs supplemented with black-and-white illustrated shape charts depict the various raptors commonly found in the U.S. and Canada in a host of flight positions. By presenting these with detailed descriptions of flight patterns and aerial habits, Liguori has created what is quite likely the definitive book on the subject presently in print."--John Riutta, Bird Watcher's Digest "This slim volume is an excellent addition to any library, but will be particularly welcomed by bird watchers wishing to improve their identification skills... Hawk watchers along migration corridors will certainly take this guide to their favorite hawk-watch station. But other bird watchers should consider adding it to their collection, where it will get much use."--Choice "The beauty of Hawks at a Distance is that you can drill down through the different levels of text, taking in as much detail as you can handle at your level... All in all, this is an excellent, compact guide that nicely complements Hawks From Every Angle."--Donna Lynn Schulman, 10,000 Birds blog "[An] excellent guide... [T]he text is to the point and littered with little nuggets of useful information that, from my experience, only years in the field would elicit."--Luke Tiller, Birdwatch "Study Jerry Liguori's excellent book, Hawks at a Distance, with its hundreds of photos of raptors in flight. I've found this book to be very helpful in providing identification clues."--Val Cunningham, Star TribuneTable of ContentsForeword by Pete Dunne ix Preface xiii Acknowledgments xiii Introduction 1 How to Use This Book 1 Terminology 2 Glossary 3 Hawk Migration 4 Helpful Hints 4 Anatomy 5 Flight Positions 6 Hawk Counting 8 Optics for Hawk Watching 8 Photography 9 Accipiters 14 Sharp-shinned Hawk 17 Cooper's Hawk 25 Northern Goshawk 31 Northern Harrier 37 Buteos 44 Red-shouldered Hawk 47 Broad-winged Hawk 51 Swainson's Hawk 59 Red-tailed Hawk 67 Ferruginous Hawk 83 Rough-legged Hawk 91 Falcons 101 American Kestrel 103 Merlin 109 Peregrine Falcon 115 Prairie Falcon 121 Gyrfalcon 124 Vultures, Osprey, Eagles 127 Black Vulture 127 Turkey Vulture 131 Osprey 135 Bald Eagle 137 Golden Eagle 147 Uncommon Migrants and Others 157 California Condor 157 Mississippi Kite 159 White-tailed Kite 159 Swallow-tailed Kite 162 Hook-billed Kite 162 Crested Caracara 163 Short-tailed Hawk 166 White-tailed Hawk 167 Zone-tailed Hawk 169 Shapes 171 Photo Credits 191 Bibliography 192 Index 193

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Book SynopsisFeaturing 234 color plates, and more than 950 color maps, this book helps identify East Asia's bird species. It covers major islands including Japan and Taiwan, as well as the Asian continent from Kamchatka to the Korean Peninsula.Trade ReviewWinner of the 2009 Louis Brownlow Book Award "Finally. The first single-volume guide for eastern Asia, and it's exquisitely illustrated."--Matt Mendenhall, Birder's World "Although northeastern Asia boasts a number of regional endemics and is a source of many actual and potential vagrants to North America, the region has been sorely lacking a modern field guide... Birds of East Asia finally provides a treatment that meets the standards expected for modern field guides... I will certainly take it with me on any future visits to the region. That's a compliment I cannot offer any other current or past field guide to the region."--Nick Lethaby, Birder "Any birder planning to visit this fascinating part of the world will want to get Birds of East Asia for their trip."--Federick Brock, Wildlife Activist "Eastern Asia, in a biological sense, represents one of the last great frontiers, even for a group as generally well known as birds. Brazil, a field ornithologist with considerable experience with Asian avifauna, has produced the first comprehensive guide to birds of the region... This is an excellent field guide and reference book. Birders who travel extensively in East Asia (or who want to) will own a copy as will any library with strong ornithological holdings."--Choice "This interesting guide, which covers major islands including Japan and Taiwan, as well as the Asian continent from Kamchatka to the Korean peninsula, is amply illustrated with a plethora of color plates and maps that will provide any traveler with the information necessary to identify any bird of this vast region."--Indiana Audubon Quarterly

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Book SynopsisNew Jersey provides some of the most varied birding in North America, and more than 450 species have been recorded in the state. This guide for the birds of New Jersey includes various species known to the state from historical times to the present, featuring over 200 color photos of rarities and regular species.Trade Review"Anyone who birds regularly in New Jersey or neighbouring states should not only study this book in depth but also keep it side by side with their standard field guide to Eastern North America... The Birds of New Jersey is an object lesson in how to produce a book of this type. It is well researched, succinct but detailed, easily accessible and extremely logical in the arrangement of the information."--Phil Slade, Another Bird Blog "After looking through The Birds of New Jersey: Status and Distribution by William J. Boyle, I was reminded of what a great state New Jersey is for birds... The book is likely the best of its kind in presenting the birding locales, prevalence, and status of birds for a single state. It is easy to navigate and concise. For any birder living in, near, or visiting New Jersey, this is one book to have!"--Jerry Liguori, Utah Birders blog "A must have for birders with an interest in the birds of New Jersey!"--Ian Paulsen, Birdbooker Report "Here is a beautiful book with a simple purpose, providing up to date status and distribution information for birds in New Jersey and the surrounding region. The Birds of New Jersey: Status and Distribution by William J. Boyle is a real winner in my book. It doesn't try to be a one stop bird book, rather it finds a small niche and really nails it."--Nemesis Bird "This comprehensive but portable paperback will be the ideal accompaniment for any stay in the state, and records of species like Long-billed Curlew will excite the interest of the British rarity-hunter."--Birdwatch (UK) "The Birds of New Jersey is a must for New Jersey birders. And it will be very useful for birders from other states or countries that visit the Garden State."--Fritz Brock, Wildlife Activist "Well written and concise, the work can be recommended as a quick and easy way to determine when and where each New Jersey bird species should occur and will be useful for both amateur birdwatchers and professional ornithologists."--Christopher J. Butler, IBISTable of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction 1 Physical Geography and Natural Regions of New Jersey 1 History 4 The New Jersey Bird Records Committee (NJBRC) 5 Criteria for Acceptance of Records of Review Species and New Species 6 Nomenclature 8 Species Accounts 8 Maps 9 Status and Abundance Terminology 10 Abbreviations 11 Glossary of Place Names 12 Pelagic Boundaries 13 Annotated List of Species 15 Appendix A: E xotics and Species of Uncertain Provenance or Status 273 Appendix B: N ot Accepted Species 275 Appendix C: List of NJBRC Review Species 277 Appendix D: I dentification Information for Captions by Kevin Karlson 279 Bibliography 283 Index 297

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Book SynopsisPresenting all the native and naturalized trees of the western United States and Canada as far east as the Great Plains, this book includes: range maps that provide a thumbnail view of distribution for each native species; "Quick ID" summaries; scientific and common names; information on the most recently naturalized species; and a key to leaves.Trade Review"Covering more species (630 in the West, 825 in the East) than any comparable field guides, Trees of Western North America and Trees of Eastern North America are the most comprehensive, best illustrated, and easiest-to-use books of their kind. The book features thousands of meticulous color paintings by David More and easy-to-read descriptions present details of size, shape, growth habit, bark, leaves, flowers, fruit, habitat, and range. With an unmatched combination of breadth and depth, these are essential guides for every tree lover."--James A. Baggett, Better Homes and Gardens "Each volume on its own would serve you well in getting to know the trees around you better. Both together certainly provide a more complete understanding of the diversity of North American trees. I already treasure my two-volume set and expect to wear it out quickly."--Guy Sternberg, American Gardener "Highly recommended for botany reference shelves!"--James A. Cox, Midwest Book Review "Excellent additions to any botanical library."--Steve Whysall, Vancouver Sun "The book is attractively designed, and each species description provides scientific and common names; a handy 'Quick ID' sentence; detailed, terse physical description; sections titled 'Habitat/Range' and 'Similar Species'; and a range map... [An] excellent reference."--Choice "These new references offer up-to-date information as well as a treasure trove of specially commissioned drawings showcasing trees both in their majestic entirety as well as in stunning, separate close-ups detailing their bark, leaves, flowers, and fruit. Such comprehensive works are impressive scholarly achievements, providing lay users with helpful assistance via 'Quick ID' summaries and range maps within entries. These are lush botanical resources from an esteemed source guaranteed to please all audiences."--Judy Quinn, Library Journal "These volumes are masterfully designed, and More's exquisitely detailed renderings will ensure that weekend botanists never mistake their Hercules' club for a common hoptree."--Bill Cannon, Scientist's Bookshelf "Astonishing... The illustrations in the Princeton tree volume are superb: colorful, accurate, and appealing."--Ed Kanze, Adirondack Explorer "Even if you don't love trees, you'll love these books."--Devorah Bennu, GrrlScientist, The Guardian "Without a doubt, this is a book that should be on the library shelf of every person interested in Georgia trees. Even better, it should be in all of our packs, right next to the hiking stick, ready to go!"--Hal Massie, BotSoc News (Georgia Botanical Society) "Whether you're faced with a saguaro or a sequoia, a hawthorn or a hemlock, this easy guide will surely get you to the birch in time."--Matthew Bettelheim, (bio)accumulation blog "With the publication of Trees of Western North America and its companion volume, Trees of Eastern North America, we have a reference set that will serve us well for generations."--Acorn, South Sound Chapter of Washington Native Plant Society "Everyone who ventures into the outdoors should have a copy in their backpack."--Frank Sousa, MassLive "For that subset of plant aficionados interested in the more arboreal members of our flora, this book should fill that bill. I have come away with a whole new set of what will probably be marginal plants to search out and try."--Jim Borland, Aquilegia "This guide is great for identifying trees throughout western Canada and the United States, particularly for botanists on the move."--Kimberly Gould, Alberta Native Plant Council Newsletter "A splendid book, comprehensive in a way that readily answers the questions I bring home from the field."--Paul J. Willis, Books and CultureTable of ContentsIntroduction 6 About This Book 6 Taxonomy and Names 7 Gymnosperms and Angiosperms 7 Tree Biology 9 Forest Structure 18 Leaf Keys 19 Key to the Gymnosperms by Leaf Type 20 Key to Selected Angiosperm Trees by Leaf Shape 21 THE TREES Gymnosperms 26 Conifers 26 Ginkgoaceae: Ginkgo Family 27 Araucariaceae: Araucaria Family 28 Cupressaceae: Cypress Family 30 Pinaceae: Pine Family 55 Taxaceae: Yew Family 110 Angiosperms 112 Monocots 112 Arecaceae: Palm Family 112 Asparagaceae: Asparagus Family 118 Dicots 130 Adoxaceae: Moschatel Family 130 Anacardiaceae: Cashew Family 134 Apocynaceae: Oleander Family 148 Aquifoliaceae: Holly Family 149 Araliaceae: Ginseng Family 152 Asteraceae: Aster Family 152 Betulaceae: Birch Family 156 Bignoniaceae: Bignonia Family 172 Boraginaceae: Borage Family 176 Buddlejaceae: Buddleja Family 178 Burseraceae: Torchwood Family 178 Cactaceae: Cactus Family 180 Cannabaceae: Hemp Family 199 Celastraceae: Bittersweet Family 204 Cornaceae: Dogwood Family 206 Ebenaceae: Ebony Family 210 Elaeagnaceae: Oleaster Family 212 Ericaceae: Heath Family 216 Euphorbiaceae: Spurge Family 226 Fabaceae: Bean or Pea Family 230 Fagaceae: Beech or Oak Family 276 Garryaceae: Silktassel Family 320 Hamamelidaceae: Witch-hazel Family 324 Juglandaceae: Walnut Family 325 Koeberliniaceae: Allthorn Family 334 Lauraceae: Laurel Family 335 Malvaceae: Mallow Family 340 Meliaceae: Mahogany Family 346 Moraceae: Mulberry Family 346 Myoporaceae: Myoporum Family 352 Myricaceae: Wax Myrtle Family 353 Myrtaceae: Myrtle Family 354 Oleaceae: Olive Family 362 Papaveraceae: Poppy Family 378 Pittosporaceae: Cheesewood Family 379 Platanaceae: Planetree Family 381 Proteaceae: Protea Family 385 Punicaceae: Pomegranate Family 386 Rhamnaceae: Buckthorn Family 386 Rosaceae: Rose Family 402 Rubiaceae: Madder Family 454 Rutaceae: Citrus or Rue Family 456 Salicaceae: Willow Family 464 Sapindaceae: Soapberry Family 500 Sapotaceae: Sapodilla Family 514 Simaroubaceae: Quassia Family 516 Solanaceae: Nightshade Family 518 Staphyleaceae: Bladdernut Family 520 Styracaceae: Storax Family 521 Tamaricaceae: Tamarisk Family 522 Ulmaceae: Elm Family 528 Verbenaceae: Vervain Family 534 Zygophyllaceae: Caltrop Family 538 Acknowledgments 540 Abbreviations 541 Glossary 542 Index of Species 547

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Book SynopsisPresenting all the native and naturalized trees of the eastern United States and Canada as far west as the Great Plains - including those species found only in tropical and subtropical Florida and northernmost Canada, this book features superior descriptions; thousands of meticulous color paintings that illustrate important visual details.Trade ReviewWinner of the 2015 PROSE Award in Outstanding Work by a Trade Publisher, Association of American "Covering more species (630 in the West, 825 in the East) than any comparable field guides, Trees of Western North America and Trees of Eastern North America are the most comprehensive, best illustrated, and easiest-to-use books of their kind. The book features thousands of meticulous color paintings by David More and easy-to-read descriptions present details of size, shape, growth habit, bark, leaves, flowers, fruit, habitat, and range. With an unmatched combination of breadth and depth, these are essential guides for every tree lover."--James A. Baggett, Better Homes and Gardens "Each volume on its own would serve you well in getting to know the trees around you better. Both together certainly provide a more complete understanding of the diversity of North American trees. I already treasure my two-volume set and expect to wear it out quickly."--Guy Sternberg, American Gardener "Highly recommended for botany reference shelves!"--James A. Cox, Midwest Book Review "Excellent additions to any botanical library."--Steve Whysall, Vancouver Sun "A great book... Similar to a bird guide, trees are broken down by families with detailed descriptions of each. Habitat and ranges are listed for each as well as great illustrations of the tree, its bark, leaves and fruit."--David Lewis, Birds from Behind "Help! I need a good tree book ... and again Princeton has come to my rescue. This newest book on the trees of eastern North America is a life-saver. Covering 825 species of trees, it is by far the most inclusive of all guides on the market today... Wish I had found this great book sooner!"--North Durham Nature Newsletter "The book is attractively designed, and each species description provides scientific and common names; a handy 'Quick ID' sentence; detailed, terse physical description; sections titled 'Habitat/Range' and 'Similar Species'; and a range map... [An] excellent reference."--Choice "These new references offer up-to-date information as well as a treasure trove of specially commissioned drawings showcasing trees both in their majestic entirety as well as in stunning, separate close-ups detailing their bark, leaves, flowers, and fruit. Such comprehensive works are impressive scholarly achievements, providing lay users with helpful assistance via 'Quick ID' summaries and range maps within entries. These are lush botanical resources from an esteemed source guaranteed to please all audiences."--Judy Quinn, Library Journal "These volumes are masterfully designed, and More's exquisitely detailed renderings will ensure that weekend botanists never mistake their Hercules' club for a common hoptree."--Bill Cannon, Scientist's Bookshelf "Astonishing... The illustrations in the Princeton tree volume are superb: colorful, accurate, and appealing."--Ed Kanze, Adirondack Explorer "Even if you don't love trees, you'll love these books."--Devorah Bennu, GrrlScientist, The Guardian "Without a doubt, this is a book that should be on the library shelf of every person interested in Georgia trees. Even better, it should be in all of our packs, right next to the hiking stick, ready to go!"--Hal Massie, BotSoc News (Georgia Botanical Society) "Whether you're faced with a saguaro or a sequoia, a hawthorn or a hemlock, this easy guide will surely get you to the birch in time."--Matthew Bettelheim, (bio)accumulation blog "With the publication of Trees of Western North America and its companion volume, Trees of Eastern North America, we have a reference set that will serve us well for generations."--Acorn, South Sound Chapter of Washington Native Plant Society "Everyone who ventures into the outdoors should have a copy in their backpack."--Frank Sousa, MassLive "These two volumes contain so much information; I would be happy to add them to my reference library... The combined effort of the three authors and the illustrator has produced an excellent reference."--Beverly Duncan, Botanical Artist "For anyone interested in tree-like plants in the West, the Trees of Western North America is it, ... proclaiming itself to be the most comprehensive, best illustrated, and easiest-to-use book of its kind... Overall, this book makes the grade 'A' in nearly every aspect of presentation; it is tremendously useful, navigable, readable, highly accurate and immensely informative."--George M. Ferguson, Arizona Native Plant Society "[I]f someone gave you these two companion books, the Princeton Field Guides' Trees of Eastern North America and Trees of Western North America, you would perform an internal cartwheel of glee over adding to your flourishing tree ID book collection. The cartwheeling would significantly increase once you then began to use these books and grasped their simple, informative layout... This will be the one tree ID book that really does not sit on your shelves as much as it rides around from jobsite to jobsite with you, ready to serve."--Tchukki Andersen, Tree Care Industry "This is a must have tree guide for naturalists, environmental educators, foresters , and individuals who want to learn more about the trees in our region."--DRK, Wildlife ActivistTable of ContentsIntroduction 7 About This Book 7 Taxonomy and Names 8 Gymnosperms and Angiosperms 8 Tree Biology 9 Forest Structure 18 Leaf and Twig Keys 19 Winter Twigs of Selected Eastern Trees 20 Key to the Gymnosperms by Leaf Type 25 Key to Selected Angiosperm Trees by Leaf Shape 26 THE TREES Gymnosperms 34 Conifers 34 Ginkgoaceae: Ginkgo Family 35 Araucariaceae: Araucaria Family 36 Cupressaceae: Cypress Family 38 Pinaceae: Pine Family 51 Taxaceae: Yew Family 78 Angiosperms 80 Monocots 80 Arecaceae: Palm Family 80 Dicots 98 Acanthaceae: Acanthus Family 98 Adoxaceae: Moschatel Family 99 Altingiaceae: Sweetgum Family 106 Anacardiaceae: Cashew Family 108 Annonaceae: Custard Apple Family 118 Apocynaceae: Oleander Family 122 Aquifoliaceae: Holly Family 126 Araliaceae: Ginseng Family 142 Asteraceae: Aster Family 146 Betulaceae: Birch Family 147 Bignoniaceae: Bignonia Family 166 Boraginaceae: Borage Family 174 Burseraceae: Torchwood Family 178 Cactaceae: Cactus Family 180 Canellaceae: Wild Cinnamon Family 180 Cannabaceae: Hemp Family 182 Capparaceae: Caper Family 188 Casuarinaceae: She-oak Family 190 Cecropiaceae: Cecropia Family 192 Celastraceae: Staff Tree Family 193 Cercidiphyllaceae: Katsura Tree Family 202 Chrysobalanaceae: Coco Plum Family 203 Clethraceae: Witch Alder Family 204 Clusiaceae: Garcinia Family 205 Combretaceae: White Mangrove Family 208 Cornaceae: Dogwood Family 214 Cyrillaceae: Titi Family 222 Ebenaceae: Ebony Family 224 Elaeagnaceae: Oleaster Family 226 Ericaceae: Heath Family 228 Euphorbiaceae: Spurge Family 236 Fabaceae: Bean or Pea Family 248 Fagaceae: Beech or Oak Family 294 Hamamelidaceae: Witch-hazel Family 350 Illiciaceae: Star Anise Family 352 Juglandaceae: Walnut Family 353 Lauraceae: Laurel Family 368 Leitneriaceae: Corkwood Family 378 Lythraceae: Loosestrife Family 379 Magnoliaceae: Magnolia Family 380 Malpighiaceae: Malpighia Family 391 Malvaceae: Mallow Family 392 Melastomataceae: Melastome Family 402 Meliaceae: Mahogany Family 403 Moraceae: Mulberry Family 406 Moringaceae: Horseradish-tree Family 418 Muntingiaceae: Muntingia Family 418 Myoporaceae: Myoporum Family 420 Myricaceae: Wax Myrtle Family 420 Myrsinaceae: Myrsine Family 424 Myrtaceae: Myrtle Family 426 Nyctaginaceae: Four-o'clock Family 444 Nyssaceae: Tupelo Family 446 Oleaceae: Olive Family 450 Paulowniaceae: Princesstree Family 466 Picramniaceae: Bitterbush Family 468 Pittosporaceae: Cheesewood Family 469 Platanaceae: Planetree Family 470 Polygonaceae: Buckwheat Family 472 Proteaceae: Protea Family 474 Punicaceae: Pomegranate Family 475 Rhamnaceae: Buckthorn Family 476 Rhizophoraceae: Red Mangrove Family 488 Rosaceae: Rose Family 489 Rubiaceae: Madder Family 562 Rutaceae: Citrus or Rue Family 572 Salicaceae: Willow Family 586 Sapindaceae: Soapberry Family 618 Sapotaceae: Sapodilla Family 646 Schoepfiaceae: Schoepfia Family 658 Simaroubaceae: Quassia Family 659 Solanaceae: Nightshade Family 661 Staphyleaceae: Bladdernut Family 665 Styracaceae: Storax Family 666 Symplocaceae: Sweetleaf Family 670 Tamaricaceae: Tamarisk Family 672 Theaceae: Tea Family 676 Theophrastaceae: Joewood Family 680 Ulmaceae: Elm Family 682 Verbenaceae: Vervain Family 692 Ximeniaceae: Ximenia Family 696 Zygophyllaceae: Caltrop Family 698 Acknowledgments 700 Abbreviations 701 Glossary 702 Index of Species 707

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Book SynopsisMany animals, including humans, acquire valuable skills and knowledge by copying others. Scientists refer to this as social learning. It is one of the most exciting and rapidly developing areas of behavioral research and sits at the interface of many academic disciplines, including biology, experimental psychology, economics, and cognitive neurosciTrade Review"The pragmatic approach makes the book a great starting point for researchers who wish to plan a study or to look for ways to analyze data. Students will find it accessible, and the analytical tools can be used by anyone having a basic understanding of statistical methods... Hoppitt and Laland's accessible writing and the book's clear graphics support its effectiveness. We predict a long and useful life for this welcome volume."--Dorothy Fragaszy and Yonat Eshchar, Science "This excellent volume provides a thorough introduction to research and issues in this field, and also serves as a handbook of methods and techniques for studying social learning... Detailed tables and figures throughout add to the volume's usefulness. A valuable introductory resource for students and an essential handbook for investigators."--Choice "[R]eaders will find food for thought in this book especially in the ninth chapter, Modeling Social Learning and Culture, which begins by operationalizing culture and establishing parallels between biological and cultural evolution. A complete theoretical approach to social learning and culture is then introduced and the modeling methods are described. I highly recommended this chapter to researchers ... and I also encourage them to take a look at the whole textbook."--Francesc S. Beltran, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation "Social Learning provides the first compelling synthesis of the social-learning literature and is of value not only to newcomers seeking an introduction to a complex, multidisciplinary field, but also to established researchers looking for challenging views on familiar topics. A copy should not only be on the bookshelf of but also read by anyone interested in the study of social learning."--Bennett G. Galef, Quarterly Review of Biology "The field of social learning challenges animal behaviorists to define and distinguish concepts that have been colloquially applied for centuries. Hoppitt and Laland have substantially advanced this field by providing a concise but broadly readable guide for those interested in investigating questions about social learning. Researchers would be wise to recognize the many potential applications of the theoretical and empirical techniques presented therein... Rather than reading about social learning all by oneself though we suggest you and several close colleagues all buy Hoppitt and Laland's fine book, so that together you can socially learn about social learning."--Mark E. Laidre & Thomas S. Kraft, International Journal of PrimatologyTable of ContentsAcknowledgments ix 1Introduction 1 What Is Social Learning? 3 Social transmission 5 Imitation 9 Innovation 9 Why Study Social Learning? 11 Summary of the Book 14 2A Brief History of Social Learning Research 16 The Evolution of Mind 17 Social Learning Mechanisms 20 Animal "Culture" 24 The Diffusion of Innovations 27 Child Development 28 Cultural Evolution 30 Conclusions 31 3Methods for Studying Social Learning in the Laboratory 33 Traditional Social Learning Studies 35 Alternative Experimental Approaches 38 Transmission chain studies 40 Diffusion studies 47 Innovation 50 The Biological Bases of Social Learning 52 Neuroendocrinological studies 53 Social learning of fear 54 Neural mechanisms of observational learning 56 Conclusions 61 4Social Learning Mechanisms 62 A Classification of Social Learning Mechanisms 63 Stimulus enhancement 65 Local enhancement 65 Observational conditioning 68 Response facilitation 69 Social facilitation 70 Imitation 70 Observational R-S learning 77 Emulation 77 Opportunity providing 78 (Inadvertent) coaching 79 Distinguishing Social Learning Mechanisms 80 Stimulus enhancement 80 Local enhancement 81 Observational conditioning 83 Response facilitation 85 Contextual imitation 87 Production imitation 89 Observational R-S learning 92 Emulation 93 Opportunity providing 94 (Inadvertent) coaching 96 A Pragmatic Approach to Characterizing Mechanisms of Social Transmission 96 Teaching 98 Summary 104 5Statistical Methods for Diffusion Data 105 Diffusion Curve Analysis 106 Network-Based Diffusion Analysis (NBDA) 108 Inclusion of individual-level variables 112 Model selection and inference 114 Modeling multiple diffusions 115 Choosing a social network 120 "Untransmitted" social effects 121 Related methods 122 Is NBDA realistic? 123 Examples 125 Spatial Spread of a Behavioral Trait 125 Wave of advance models 125 Other approaches for spatial data 127 Summary 128 6Repertoire-Based Methods for Detecting and Quantifying Social Transmission 129 The Group-Contrasts Approach 130 The Method of Exclusion 133 Basic and advanced methods of exclusion 133 Methods for assessing the genetic hypothesis 134 Methods for assessing the ecological hypothesis 143 Further problems with the method of exclusion 149 A Model-Fitting Approach 150 A matrix regression approach 150 Examples 151 A return to group comparisons 154 A Causal Modeling Framework 155 Relationship to the matrix regression approach 164 Ruling out homophily 164 Ruling out unknown ecological variables 167 Relationship to the method of exclusion 168 Conclusions 168 7Developmental Methods for Studying Social Learning 172 Observational Data 173 Describing the developmental process 173 Modeling probability of acquisition 177 Modeling time of acquisition 179 Modeling proficiency of trait performance 184 Modeling option choice 185 Limitations of observational data 188 Experimental Manipulations 188 Diffusion experiments 189 Manipulation of social experience 191 Translocation studies 193 Conclusions 195 8Social Learning Strategies 196 Why Social Learning Is Strategic 196 "When" Strategies 203 Copy when established behavior is unproductive 203 Copy when asocial learning is costly 205 Copy when uncertain 210 Copy when prior information is outdated 212 Copy when dissatisfied 213 Is copying a first or last resort? 214 "Who" Strategies 215 Frequency-dependent biases 216 Success biases 221 Kin and age biases 225 "What" Strategies 226 Random Copying 227 Statistical Methods for Detecting Social Learning Strategies 229 Meta-strategies, Best Strategies, and Hierarchical Control 232 9Modeling Social Learning and Culture 235 Introduction 235 Why model? 235 Operationalizing the culture concept 237 Parallels between biological and cultural evolution 238 Theoretical Approaches to Social Learning and Cultural Evolution 239 Population-genetic style models of cultural evolution 239 Population-genetic style models of gene-culture coevolution 241 Neutral models and random copying 246 Social foraging theory 250 Spatially explicit models 251 Reaction-diffusion models 253 Agent-based models 254 Phylogenetic models 255 Conclusions 258 10Conclusions 260 References 265 Index 301

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Book SynopsisPresents a celebration of the beauty of birds and the British and Irish countryside. Following The Crossley ID Guides' award-winning design, this book looks at all regularly occurring species in Britain and Ireland, and shows readers how to identify birds in their natural habitats using size, structure, shape, probability, and behavior.Trade ReviewRichard Crossley, Winner of the 2012 ABA Robert Ridgway Award for Publications in Field Ornithology, American Birding Association One of The Guardian's Best Nature Books of 2013, chosen by Stephen Moss "[The Crossley ID Guide series focuses] on maximising your chances of correctly identifying species by ramping up the number and variety of species images within the guide and placing these images within typical habitats... Each beautiful plate is painstakingly filled with images of hundreds of individual species in different settings or from different angles to help recreate how you might encounter it."--Kate Jones, New Scientist "This book is beyond excellent and there won't be a birder in Europe and beyond who won't be hoping to find this in their Xmas stocking!"--Bo Beolens, Fat Birder "Bright, bold, clean-looking and easy to use, it is not just an identification guide--it is a celebration of our birds and how they fit into our landscape."--Andy Stoddart "The Crossley Guide has something for everyone. I would suggest this book is an absolute must for beginners or novice birders. I can think of no better format that I have seen that caters for this audience. The species are set out in an order that immediately aids comparison between similar species and most are shown in flight and in all plumages."--Paul Freestone, Cornwall Birding "Although clearly directed at the more novice birdwatchers amongst us, I see much merit and use for this within the more experienced members of the community--well worth keeping a copy in the car and well worthy of perusal. Overall, a thoroughly recommended purchase."--Lee G R Evans, UK400ClubRareBirdAlert "Overall I think this book is superb and it should be on every birders Christmas list or even a treat for yourself as you buy presents this year. For the target audience this really is the book they've been waiting for and it is one every birder should recommend to a friend who is starting to get interested in birds... My book of the year."--John Hague, Drunk Birder "For me this new volume will be essential as an additional aid in identifying difficult species."--Derek Bird Brain "This photographic field guide is different, and quite informative. Each species is presented as a number of small individual photographs mounted on a full-page photograph of their typical preferred habitat... Mostly targeted to beginners to use in the field, but it is detailed enough to be a useful study guide for more advanced birders, too."--Devorah Bennu, GrrlScientist at The Guardian "Informative, unique and enthusiastically written, with something for everyone. Sure to be an excellent addition to many a bookshelf and a core reference for those building on their bird ID skills."--Anthony Hurd, Birding Frontiers "If you are just a beginner or wanting to expand your skills then the Crossley ID Guide to birds of Britain and Ireland is a 'must buy book' and even if you are experienced birder then it is a highly engrossing book looking at the scenery of the plates and the postures of the birds making a great browse through."--Birding Ecosse "The multi-image scenes of wildfowl in The Crossley ID Guide: Britain and Ireland are especially praiseworthy... I heartily recommend it to anyone looking for an introductory guide and learning tool to British and Irish birds."--Phil Slade, Another Bird Blog "Richard Crossley and Dominic Couzens have lifted the field guide out of the rut and produced a first class book that is well worth looking at."--Biggest Twitch "Showing lots of birds in natural surroundings really does conjure up the 'feel' of the bird sighting as well as its technical details."--Mark Avery Blog "One of the great things about my job is that I get to see a lot of bird and natural history books. Choosing the four featured books for each issue of Nature's Home, just four times a year, takes a lot of time and thought. It takes a really special one to jump out from the crowd and I was delighted to see that the Crossley guide to UK birds lived up to my expectations."--Mark Ward, Nature's Home Blog "Anyone reading my review will be aware just how highly I rate the Crossley Guide."--John Hague, Drunk Birder Blog "The opportunity to compare potential confusion species in the same 'field of view' in the guide or pick out the odd one in a flock can only be a useful tool."--Alan Tilmouth, Birdguides "A thoroughly excellent book. If you are wondering what Christmas present to buy for the British birder who has every field guide there is, look no further!"--David Bakewell, Dig Deep blog "A noteworthy, excellent addition to the European bird guide lists."--Donna Schulman, 10,000 Birds "[A] revolutionary new bird book."--Stephen Moss, Guardian "It's a book for all ages and would actually make a great Christmas present for someone starting out in bird watching."--Over Wyre Focus "Birding is an art form in the United Kingdom, and Richard Crossley and Dominic Couzens team up to turn field guides into an art with The Crossley ID Guide: Britain & Ireland... Ideal just to read or an equally useful tool in the field, this book should have a place of distinction on every birder's bookshelf."--Melissa Mayntz, About.com "I have also been using this book to ID some of my own wild birds and have ... found it highly useful. This book is thorough and descriptions detailed about species specific behavior, breeding and placement as well as physical size, seasonal plumage and feeding... This book has literally grown on me; I've gone full circle from unsure to love. I have always valued both Dominic Couzens and Richard Crossley as they are excellent photographers and naturalists. This is the perfect ID book and gift for the beginner to the advanced birder because of the many photos of each species with the added variations in seasonal and age colorations. Plus the fact they are in natural backgrounds it gives you a feel of real bird watching as you have to look for some of them more closely. So this Crossley ID guide now has earned a firm place on my birdy bookshelf."--Gadget Girl Reviews "[T]his is a solid field guide that expands how we use and arrange photographs of birds in a field guide format... [M]ost birders will discover that this is yet another useful reference on bird identification that will complement other field guides in their library."--Stephen Dinsmore, Iowa Bird Life "I would highly recommend this book to help you improve your skills at identifying birds in real situations."--Su Gough, BTO News "Whilst the text and many other aspects of the book are a revelation, it is the plates that make the book for me."--North Star "Stunning! There is no other word to describe the recently published Crossley ID Guide to Britain and Ireland. How it would have transformed my early birding if such a publication had been available thirty or more years ago."--Surfbirds.com "Crossley and Couzens certainly have excellent credentials in bird identification, and their talents are on display here. While the present volume is a bird guide, it is unlike any that this reviewer has seen."--P.K. Lago, Choice "I think this is a user-friendly guide and is unique in its use of photo-montages of life-scenes: varying the angles and distance of the birds to resemble the situation when birding in the real world. It really emphasizes the importance of shape, behavior, size and even habitat that the bird is in which birders really need to grasp to progress in their identification skills... [Y]ou can't question the appeal of this sort of guide to beginner and intermediate birders... [I]t most definitely serves its purpose as a teaching tool and field guide for the basic birds to be encountered and how to correctly ID them."--Danni Gilroy, Next Generation Birders "The Crossley ID Guide: Britain and Ireland is an impressive and significant contribution to the range of bird identification guides available for the British Isles. Given the development of apps and the availability of pocket guides it is perhaps most valuable not in the field, although Crossley clearly intends it for this purpose, but as a handy home vade mecum to be consulted on return from a birding foray to verify sightings. It is also eminently suited to browsing prior to venturing out and as a 'training' aid for new birders. These features also recommend it for library use--any UK public library that needs to strengthen or just enhance its bird watching collection is recommended to purchase, both for the reference and lending shelves."--Tony Chalcraft, Reference Reviews "[T]his book is aimed at beginning and intermediate birders. However if you are an experienced US birder but have never birded Great Britain or Ireland, this book is also for you."--Frederic H. Brock, Wildlife Activist

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewWinner of the 2015 Louis J. Battan Author's Award, American Meteorological Society "Mathematicians Ian Roulstone and John Norbury demystify the maths behind meteorology. Trailblazers' work is vividly evoked, from eighteenth-century mathematician Leonhard Euler on hydrostatics to physicist Vilhelm Bjerknes's numerical weather prediction. The pace cranks up with twentieth-century advances such as Jule Gregory Charney's harnessing of the gargantuan ENIAC computer for his work in the 1940s and 1950s on forecasting pressure patterns."--Nature "[O]ne of the great strengths of the book is the way it picks apart the challenge of making predictions about a chaotic system, showing what improvements we might yet hope for and what factors confound them."--Philip Ball, Prospect "A welcome and authoritative account of the 20th-century contributions of mathematically sophisticated meteorologists such as Vilhelm Berknes (1862--1951), Carl-Gustav Rossby (1898--1957), Jule Charney (1917--1981), and Ed Lorenz (1917--2008)... Clearly, this book is informative and inspirational, leaving plenty of room for innovations by future generations of mathematicians and modelers."--James Rodger Fleming, MAA Reviews "This book gives a deep insight of the mathematics involved in the forecast of weather... The authors have done a brilliant work to collect a huge amount of historical information, as well as mathematical information, but keeping always a level in the explanations that makes the text accessible to undergraduate students in the first years, and even to people not so familiar with mathematics. All in all, this is a very interesting and enjoyable reading."--Vicente Munoz, European Mathematical Society "Shows how much modern weather forecasting depends on mathematics... A superior read."--Alexander Bogolomny, CTK Insights "Takes readers on a journey, starting with the initial vision of Bjerknes, and then leads them through the early unsuccessful hand-calculated attempts at forecasting the weather mathematically, progressing to the use of early electronic computers which, even though successful, could not produce a timely forecast. It concludes by describing the current methods of Numerical Weather Prediction ... a book that will appeal to the intelligent 'popular science' enthusiast without disengaging the more theoretically-versed reader."--David-John Gibbs, Weather "UK mathematicians Roulstone and Norbury provide a lively account of the evolution of numerical weather prediction, focusing on the individuals involved in advancing measurement of atmospheric properties and the implementation of numerical methods to describe and predict atmospheric processes... This unique historical narrative will interest scholars of the history and philosophy of science."--Choice "Roulstone and Norbury do well within the constraints of this species of book. The story they tell is far from exhausted. I hope they write a sequel!"--John P. Boyd, Mathematical Reviews "[A] fascinating account of science's admirable but ultimately inadequate attempts to get to grips with the natural environment upon which we depend for life itself, but which is equally capable of visiting death and destruction upon us."--Jonathan Gornall, The National "[T]he authors have done well to create a book that will appeal to the intelligent 'popular science' enthusiast without disengaging the more theoretically-versed reader."--David-John Gibbs, Weather "Accessible and timely, Invisible in the Storm explains the crucial role of mathematics in understanding the ever-changing weather."--Nina Shokina, Zentralblatt MATH "[T]his is a well-written book giving a generally clear and accessible account of how weather forecasts are prepared. The historical detail enlivens the narrative and makes for an enjoyable read. The authors have considerable knowledge and expertise, and the book is scientifically sound. It can be warmly recommended to anyone who wishes to understand, in broad terms, how modern weather forecasts are made and how we may use models of the atmosphere to anticipate changes in the earth's climate."--Peter Lynch, Notices of the AMS "This very readable book provides an excellent insight into the history of forecasting the weather, with a considerable, but not too challenging, mathematical bent."--Colin J W Czapiewski, Actuary "Invisible in the Storm: The Role of Mathematics in Understanding Weather explores how mathematics and meteorology come together to improve weather and climate prediction, taking readers on a fascinating journey through the work of trailblazing scientists over the past 100 years."--University of Surrey website "I really enjoyed reading the book and I would recommend it to specialists who want to get an overview of the history of numerical weather prediction. I think it is also well worth reading for anyone who wishes to understand the developments in the science of meteorology that has led to the present level of forecast skill."--Erland Kallen, ECMWF Newsletter "Roulstone and Norbury have done an outstanding job and provide readers a fine bibliography to continue their education on this fascinating topic."--Robert E. O'malley, Jr., SIAM Review "Accessible and timely, Invisible in the Storm explains the crucial role of mathematics in understanding the ever-changing weather."--World Book Industry "[T]his is a well-written book giving a generally clear and accessible account of how weather forecasts are prepared. The historical detail enlivens the narrative and makes for an enjoyable read. The authors have considerable knowledge and expertise, and the book is scientifically sound. It can be warmly recommended to anyone who wishes to understand, in broad terms, how modern weather forecasts are made, and how we may use models of the atmosphere to anticipate changes in the Earth's climate."--Peter Lynch, Irish Math Society Bulletin "This book is highly readable and gives a bird's eye view of development of meteorology... It is strongly recommended to practitioners of meteorology and those interested in understanding this complex subject."--Ravi S. Nanjundiah, Current Science "The authors have to be applauded for having succeeded in writing a very entertaining and accessible book... The book must be considered essential reading for anyone interested in the history and mathematics of weather prediction."--Sebastian Reich, Jahresbericht der DMV "I recommend Invisible in the Storm both to mathematics undergraduates and educators who are interested in applied mathematics, weather forecasting, or both."--Steven Boyce, Mathematics TeacherTable of ContentsPreface vii Prelude: New Beginnings 1 ONE The Fabric of a Vision 3 TWO From Lore to Laws 47 THREE Advances and Adversity 89 FOUR When the Wind Blows the Wind 125 Interlude: A Gordian Knot 149 FIVE Constraining the Possibilities 153 SIX The Metamorphosis of Meteorology 187 Color Insert follows page 230 SEVEN Math Gets the Picture 231 EIGHT Predicting in the Presence of Chaos 271 Postlude: Beyond the Butterfly 313 Glossary 317 Bibliography 319 Index 323

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Book SynopsisFeatures the bird species that are likely to be encountered by visitors to the popular Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya. This guide contains more than 300 photographs covering over 200 species of birds and is accessible and informative, rather than purely identification-based. It also explores bird species behavior and species etymology.Trade Review"If you are visiting the Masai Mara, this book will serve you well."--Devorah Bennu, GrrlScentist "Birds of the Masai Mara is perfect for its declared audience... [I]f copies find their way into the hands of the driver guides, and into the schools that surround the park, perhaps a new generation of people will be inspired to ensure the region's wonderful avifauna will continue to prosper."--John Fanshawe, "IBIS"--Table of ContentsAbout this book 11 The habitats 14 Plains 15 Marsh and water 16 Woodland, scrub & garden 18 Acacia scrub 19 Village 20 Forest 21 Up in the air 22 Nightbirds 23 Map of the Masai Mara 24 BIRDS OF THE PLAINS Ostrich 26 Secretarybird 28 Grey Crowned Crane 29 Kori Bustard 30 Black-bellied Bustard 31 White-bellied Bustard 31 Temminck's Courser 32 Crowned Plover 33 Black-winged Plover 33 White Stork 34 Abdim's Stork 35 Southern Ground Hornbill 35 Marabou Stork 36 Ruppell's Vulture 37 White-backed Vulture 37 Hooded Vulture 38 White-headed Vulture 38 Lappet-faced Vulture 39 Vultures in flight 40 Martial Eagle 42 Bateleur 43 Black-chested Snake Eagle 43 Black Kite 44 Augur Buzzard 44 Tawny Eagle 45 Flying raptors 46 African Harrier Hawk 48 Montagu's Harrier 49 African Black-shouldered Kite 49 Grey Kestrel 50 Lanner Falcon 50 Common Kestrel 51 Yellow-throated Sandgrouse 52 Lilac-breasted Roller 53 Eurasian Roller 53 Red-billed Oxpecker 54 Yellow-billed Oxpecker 54 Wattled Starling 55 Rufous-naped Lark 56 Pectoral-patch Cisticola 56 Red-capped Lark 56 Buffy Pipit 58 Rosy-breasted Longclaw 58 Yellow-throated Longclaw 59 Capped Wheatear 60 Northern Anteater Chat 60 Sooty Chat 61 Yellow Bishop 62 Jackson's Widowbird 62 Yellow-mantled Widowbird 63 BIRDS OF MARSH AND WATER African Open-billed Stork 64 Woolly-necked Stork 64 Yellow-billed Stork 65 Saddle-billed Stork 66 Sacred Ibis 67 Hadada Ibis 67 Squacco Heron 68 Striated Heron 68 Rufous-bellied Heron 69 Great White Egret 70 Cattle Egret 71 Little Egret 71 Grey Heron 72 Goliath Heron 72 Black-headed Heron 73 Grey Heron 73 African Fish Eagle 74 Hamerkop 76 Water Thick-knee 77 Spur-winged Goose 78 Egyptian Goose 78 White-faced Whistling Duck . 79 African Jacana 80 Black-winged Stilt 80 Black Crake 81 Long-toed Plover . 82 Spur-winged Plover 82 Blacksmith Plover 83 Three-banded Plover 84 Common Greenshank 85 African Wattled Plover 85 Green Sandpiper 87 Wood Sandpiper 87 Common Sandpiper 87 Giant Kingfisher 88 Malachite Kingfisher 89 Pied Kingfisher 89 African Pied Wagtail 90 Moustached Grass Warbler 90 Common Waxbill 91 BIRDS OF WOODLAND, SCRUB & GARDEN Long-crested Eagle 92 Brown Snake Eagle 92 African Hawk Eagle 93 Scaly Francolin 94 Red-necked Spurfowl 94 Hildebrandt's Francolin 95 Coqui Francolin 96 Helmeted Guineafowl 96 Crested Francolin 97 Laughing Dove 98 Red-eyed Dove 98 Ring-necked Dove 99 Speckled Pigeon 100 African Green Pigeon 101 Emerald-spotted Wood Dove 101 Speckled Mousebird 102 African Grey Hornbill 102 Meyer's Parrot 103 White-browed Coucal 104 Bare-faced Go-away-bird 104 Red-chested Cuckoo 105 Diederik Cuckoo 107 Klaas's Cuckoo 107 Little Bee-eater 107 Striped Kingfisher 108 Woodland Kingfisher 108 Grey-headed Kingfisher 109 Common Scimitarbill 110 Green Wood-hoopoe 111 Hoopoe 111 Greater Honeyguide 112 D'Arnaud's Barbet 113 Lesser Honeyguide 113 Nubian Woodpecker 114 Cardinal Woodpecker 114 Green-backed Woodpecker 115 Black-headed Oriole 116 Tropical Boubou 116 Grey-headed Bushshrike 117 Brown-throated Wattle-eye 118 Chin-spot Batis 118 Black-backed Puffback 119 Grey-backed Fiscal 120 Northern White-crowned Shrike 121 Common Fiscal 121 Common Drongo 122 Northern Black Flycatcher 123 Slate-coloured Boubou 123 Common Bulbul 124 Arrow-marked Babbler 125 Brown-crowned Tchagra 125 African Paradise Flycatcher 126 White-eyed Slaty Flycatcher 127 African Blue Flycatcher 127 Rattling Cisticola 128 Red-faced Crombec 129 Tawny-flanked Prinia 129 Grey-capped Warbler 130 Grey-backed Camaroptera 131 Yellow-breasted Apalis 131 Scarlet-chested Sunbird 132 Collared Sunbird 133 Variable Sunbird 133 White-browed Robin Chat . 134 Ruppell's Starling 134 Greater Blue-eared Starling 135 Hildebrandt's Starling 136 Violet-backed Starling 137 Superb Starling 137 Baglafecht Weaver 138 Village Weaver 138 Spectacled Weaver 138 Purple Grenadier 140 Bronze Mannikin 141 Red-cheeked Cordon-bleu 141 Golden-breasted Bunting 142 Yellow-fronted Canary 142 Pin-tailed Whydah 143 BIRDS OF ACACIA SCRUB Blue-naped Mousebird 144 Abyssinian Scimitarbill 144 Von der Decken's Hornbill 145 African Grey Flycatcher 146 Silverbird 147 White-bellied Canary 147 Grey-capped Social Weaver 148 Speckle-fronted Weaver 148 Vitelline Masked Weaver 149 VILLAGE BIRDS Grey-headed Sparrow 150 Kenya Rufous Sparrow 150 House Sparrow 151 Red-billed Firefinch 152 Village Indigobird 152 Pied Crow 153 FOREST BIRDS Schalow's Turaco 154 Narina Trogon 155 Ross's Turaco 155 Grey-throated Barbet 156 Double-toothed Barbet 156 Black-and-white Casqued Hornbill 157 BIRDS OF THE AIR White-headed Saw-wing 158 Black Saw-wing 158 Eurasian Bee-eater 159 Barn Swallow 160 Wire-tailed Swallow 160 Plain Martin 161 Lesser Striped Swallow 161 Little Swift 162 White-rumped Swift 162 Nyanza Swift 163 Common Swift 163 African Palm Swift 163 NIGHT BIRDS Pearl-spotted Owlet 164 Slender-tailed Nightjar 164 Verreaux's Eagle Owl 165 References and useful resources 166 Acknowledgements and photographic credits 167 List of scientific names 168 Index 171 Short Index inside back cover

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Book SynopsisA guide to South Georgia that depicts the birds, mammals, insects, flowering plants, and other vegetation found in this part of the world. It features 368 photographs of 180 species, including 65 species of birds, 20 species of sea mammals, nearly 60 species of insects, and more than 40 species of flowering and nonflowering plants.Trade Review"Even if you have no intention of ever traveling to South Georgia, this book is worth reading. The descriptions of the territory's birds, seals, whales, introduced mammals, invertebrates, and plants are written within the framework of the conversationist, so it is more than a field guide, it is a record of endangered wildlife and the efforts being made to protect it... I do recommend A Field Guide to the Wildlife of South Georgia as a book that is informative and enjoyable, a photographic and textual tour of a magical place filled with fantastical creatures that are far from mythic."--Donna Schulman, 10,000 Birds "A true guide to wildlife... This guide will open the eyes of even the most single-minded fan of the feathered to the richness and complexity of this most spectacular of the subantarctic islands."--Rick Wright, ABA Blog "Cruising way down south this winter? Planning a trip to South America, Antarctica or South Georgia island? Wherever you're cruising in the southern hemisphere, don't leave home without your wildlife guide. Pack A Field Guide to the Wildlife of South Georgia in your luggage, and you'll instantly be able to tell a macaroni penguin from a rockhopper penguin."--Ginger Dingus, Examiner.com "[A]n excellent guide that includes lots of really nice photographs of the island's wildlife."--FHB, Wildlife Activist "This is an excellent book and recommended for all visitors."--Keith Betton, Birding World "This guide, designed for tourists, is the only one of its kind. Brief introductions on geology, topography, climate, history, and conservation efforts lay the groundwork for an impressive photographic guide."--Choice "If I were making a trip to South Georgia, as increasing numbers of eco-tourists are doing these days, I would be sure to have in my possession a copy of this book. Further, I would expect that by trip's end it would be dog-eared and coffee-stained, strong evidence of what I believe to be its indispensable nature in such an endeavor."--David Ainley, Marine Ornithology

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Book SynopsisThis is the first book to help general readers recognize 200 common mosses of the Northeast and the Appalachian Mountains. With just this field guide, a hand lens, and a spray bottle--no microscopes necessary--readers will be able to identify and name many of the common species of mosses growing in the region's backyards, parks, forests, wetlands,Trade Review"With a 10X loupe and this book, an entire new world can be opened to even a seasoned naturalist."--DRK, Wildlife Activist "Since this is the first moss field guide for the eastern states covering most common species, it fills a need for those interested in these plants."--Choice "I have no doubt that this guide will become a trusted field companion for outdoor educators and amateur naturalists, who may be new to moss identification, as well as to botanists interested in refreshing their moss identification skills. Common Mosses fills a long-standing void in moss field guides for the region, and, as such, this guide will make the identification of these small plants more accessible to a wider botanical audience."--J. M. Budke, Plant Science Bulletin "This is a perfect book for the incipient bryologist of the temperate region, and is a pleasure to leaf through for the more experienced one... I have seen quite a number of field guides to bryophytes that are intended for beginners or people who have a general interest in nature, and this book is one of the very best. Without compromises regarding scientific accuracy or illustration quality it introduces the relatively difficult mosses in a superb way."--Lars Hedenas, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society "This guide is an excellent field manual that should enhance the appreciation of a group that has been largely overlooked by many naturalists. If you have never stopped on a hiking trail to closely examine a bank of mosses on a rotting log or on a boulder along a mountain stream, you should. By examining the delicate structures of these tiny plants and by comprehending their immense diversity here in the Appalachians, you will greatly expand your awareness of the natural world."--Gary Walker, Appalachian JournalTable of ContentsHow to Use this Book 9 Key Features 10 Key Features Path to the Keys 16 How to Look at a Moss 18 Collecting Mosses 20 What Are Mosses? 22 Basic Structure of Mosses 25 Life History of Mosses 26 What Good Are Mosses? 28 Species Treatments * Acrocarps 33 * Pleurocarps 173 * Leafless 317 * Peat Mosses 321 How to Use the Identification Keys 340 Keys 341 Habitat Lists 380 Moss Publications and Resources 384 Moss Names 385 Index 386

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Book SynopsisHere is the ultimate field guide to Botswana's stunningly diverse birdlife. Covering all 597 species recorded to date, Birds of Botswana features more than 1,200 superb color illustrations, detailed species accounts, seasonality and breeding bars, and a color distribution map for each species. Drawing on the latest regional and national data, the bTrade Review"[An] excellent guide... With the publication of this field guide, Botswana is likely to become a more popular birding destination for travelers."--Dan R. Kunkle, Wildlife Activist "This is the first-ever field guide to birds of this south African country. Part of the Princeton Field Guides, it is excellent, with 255 well-executed color plates of all 597 Botswana species... A very valuable resource for all academic audiences concerned with Africa's wildlife."--Choice "This book is definitely an excellent addition to the ornithological literature of southern Africa."--Holger Kolberg, Lanioturdus "The book will be a welcome addition to any keen southern African birder's library."--Peter Ryan, African Birdlife "Attractive, readable ... this field guide will prove indispensable for birdwatchers traveling in Botswana."--Jonathan F. Husband, ARBATable of ContentsForeword 7 Acknowledgments 8 Introduction 9 Botswana at a glance 9 Biogeographic context 10 Vegetation and habitat types 11 Overview of Botswana's birds 17 Where to see birds in Botswana 17 How to use this book 20 BirdLife Botswana 22 Glossary 23 Bird Topography 26 Species Accounts 28-383 Struthionidae 28 Numididae 28 Phasianidae 30 Turnicidae 34 Anatidae36 Podicipedidae 46 Phoenicopteridae 48 Ciconiidae 50 Scopidae 54 Threskiornithidae 56 Ardeidae 58 Pelecanidae 70 Phalacrocoracidae 72 Anhingidae 74 Heliornithidae 74 Sagittariidae 76 Pandionidae 76 Accipitridae 78 Falconidae 112 Otididae 120 Gruidae 124 Sarothruridae 126 Rallidae 126 Burhinidae 134 Recurvirostridae 134 Charadriidae 136 Rostratulidae 142 Jacanidae 144 Scolopacidae 146 Glareolidae 158 Stercorariidae 164 Laridae 164 Pteroclidae 170 Columbidae 172 Musophagidae178 Cuculidae 180 Strigidae 190 Tytonidae 196 Caprimulgidae 198 Apodidae 202 Trogonidae 206 Coliidae 208 Coraciidae 210 Alcedinidae 212 Meropidae 218 Upupidae 222 Phoeniculidae 222 Bucerotidae 224 Bucorvidae 226 Lybiidae 228 Indicatoridae 230 Picidae 232 Psittacidae 236 Platysteiridae 238 Prionopidae 240 Eurylaimidae 240 Malaconotidae 242 Dicruridae 248 Campephagidae 248 Monarchidae 250 Laniidae 250 Oriolidae 254 Pittidae 256 Corvidae 256 Stenostiridae 258 Paridae 258 Remizidae 260 Nicatoridae 260 Alaudidae 262 Pycnonotidae 272 Hirundinidae 274 Macrosphenidae 282 Phylloscopidae 282 Acrocephalidae 284 Locustellidae 290 Cisticolidae 290 Leiothrichidae 302 Sylviidae 306 Zosteropidae 308 Certhiidae 308 Sturnidae 310 Buphagidae 316 Turdidae 318 Muscicapidae 320 Nectariniidae 334 Passeridae 338 Ploceidae 344 Estrildidae 356 Viduidae 364 Motacillidae 370 Fringillidae 378 Emberizidae 382 Appendix of Additional Species 384 References 385 Species Index 386 About the Author & Illustrator 398

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Book SynopsisThe fungi realm has been called the "hidden kingdom," a mysterious world populated by microscopic spores, gigantic mushrooms and toadstools, and a host of other multicellular organisms ranging widely in color, size, and shape. The Kingdom of Fungi provides an intimate look at the world's astonishing variety of fungi species, from cup fungi and lichTrade ReviewOne of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2013 "An instant classic... The book's 800+ photographs accomplish a singular feat: they display the diagnostic features of a particular species--gill attachment or lack thereof, apothecial hairs, etc.--without sacrificing esthetics... The text is remarkable, too. It describes the ecology and biology of fungi, where fungi grow, and human interactions with fungi."--Lawrence Millman, Boston Mycological Club Bulletin "A lavish work... [A] book with a message about both the beauty and importance of fungi that should be widely available in bookshops worldwide and so help raise the global awareness of kingdom Fungi. I cannot commend it too strongly, and if you have not yet seen it you are in for a real treat--perhaps a mycologist's equivalent of being a kid in a candy store."--IMA Fungus "The Kingdom of Fungi is a feast for the senses, and the ideal reference for naturalists, researchers, and anyone interested in fungi."--Northeastern Naturalist "This ... book is a visual feast that I keep on my coffee table and take to show off at lectures about fungi... This book would make an excellent addition to the NAMA school teaching kit. The pictures will enthrall young children and the text is both easy to understand and informative. Even after decades of studying mycology, I discovered new material and interesting material... I would have college mycology students buy the book as part of their course--the text will give them a succinct over-view of the fungal kingdom and the pictures will give them the visuals that are so lacking in their college textbooks. However, I will also want to introduce anyone from 6 years old to 100 to this book. It contains both sound science and visual humor."--Michael W. Beug, Mychophile "I am particularly impressed by the range of scale in Petersen's photography. Not just the usual field guide photos of decent-sized mushrooms, but everything from landscapes to tiny cups to microscopic features, all done in excellent fashion. And, not only are the photos beautiful but they are showcased in an equally attractive package created by the design team. No stodgy textbook this. The charts are colorful, clearly laid out, and integrated nicely with the photos. With a very reasonable price, there is no reason for every mushroomer not to have his or her own copy and perhaps to buy additional ones for eye-opening gifts for friends who don't yet share our passion for the fungi."--Steve Trudell, Mychophile "Petersen has been both a mycologist and a fine arts photographer for decades. His ability to capture minute fungal structures while maintaining a stunning aesthetic in the 800-plus photos makes this book an unsurpassed treasure... [I]t would be a showpiece in any specialist's collection. The volume's spectacular images will captivate even the most disinterested individual."--Choice "A joyful photo-essay on the glorious diversity of fungi. It will not hurt your brain or your wallet. Because of all the beautiful photos, you will hardly even notice you are learning things, that you are developing a structured view of the kingdom of fungi."--Kathie T. Hodge, Cornell Mushroom Blog "I have a number of mushroom identification guides in my library, but nothing close to this book. This is a book that has something for both the mushroom picker and the serious mycologist. I think it could be a useful textbook in a college biology course covering fungi."--RK, Wildlife Activist "This is not just an outstanding photographic compendium of the fungi, it is a very well-constructed and researched work. It will appeal not only to fungal enthusiasts and specialists, but also to novices who will be enchanted by the colors and shapes, the weird and strange, and the fun that be had being a mycologist."--Jane Faull, Quarterly Review of Biology "Beautifully illustrated... An ideal reference for naturalists, researchers and anyone interested in finding out more."--Sussex Wildlife Trust Magazine "This book provides an intimate look at a vast variety of fungal species and fungal life as never done before... The overall appearance of the book is well laid and highly recommended as a coffee table book for students, scholars and fungal lovers."--Melvina D'souza & Kevin D. Hyde, Fungal DiversityTable of Contents*FrontMatter, pg. i*Contents, pg. 3*Preface, pg. 4*Introducing fungal life, pg. 6*Fungal spores, pg. 8*Hyphae, pg. 12*Kinship, pg. 18*The perfect imperfects, pg. 24*Fruiting bodies, pg. 34*The Ascomycota, pg. 46*The Basidiomycota, pg. 102*The Zygomycota and other groups, pg. 192*Fungal ecology, pg. 194*Fungi in the world, pg. 223*Fungal future, pg. 254*Postscript, pg. 259*Index, pg. 260

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"An excellent new photographic field guide... The most comprehensive and authoritative field guide to the birds of the region."--Birding Ecuador blog "What is incredible is that even the rarest and most difficult birds are depicted with high-resolution photos... This book is much more than a compilation of high quality photographs--it is a true field guide. This is not surprising since the two authors are both leading experts on Ecuador's birds, and Nick Athanas is a leading bird guide for Tropical Birding."--Frank Lambert, Birder's LibraryTable of ContentsINTRODUCTION 7 Region Covered 9 Range Maps 9 Format of the Species Accounts 11 Taxonomy 11 Conservation 12 Habitats 13 Elevational Zones 19 Bird Topography 20 SPECIES ACCOUNTS 23 Tinamous 24 Guans, Chachalacas, Curassows, and Screamer 26 New-World Quails, Whistling-Ducks 30 Ducks 30 Grebes 36 Storks 36 Albatrosses 38 Petrels and Shearwaters 38 Storm-petrels 38 Tropicbirds 40 Flamingos 40 Ibises and Spoonbills 40 Herons, Bitterns, and Egrets 42 Frigatebirds 48 Pelicans 48 Boobies 50 Anhinga 54 Cormorants 54 Vultures 56 Osprey 58 Kites, Hawks, and Eagles 58 Falcons and Caracaras 82 Rails, Gallinules, and Coots 90 Limpkin 96 Stilts 96 Oystercatchers 96 Sunbittern 96 Thick-knees 96 Jacanas 98 Lapwings and Plovers 98 Seedsnipes 102 Snipes, Sandpipers, and Related Shorebirds 102 Gulls, Terns, and Skimmers 114 Pigeons and Doves 124 Parakeets, Parrots, and Macaws 132 Cuckoos and Anis 140 Owls 144 Nighthawks and Nightjars 152 Potoos 156 Oilbird 156 Swifts 158 Hummingbirds 162 Quetzals and Trogons 196 Kingfishers 202 Motmots 204 Jacamars 204 Puffbirds 204 New World Barbets 208 Toucan Barbet 208 Aracaris and Toucans 210 Woodpeckers 214 Ovenbirds (Furnariids) and Woodcreepers 222 Antbirds 242 Antthrushes 254 Antpittas 256 Tapaculos 260 Crescentchest 260 Tyrant Flycatchers 264 Tityras and Becards 302 Sapayoa 306 Cotingas and Fruiteaters 308 Pihas 314 Mourners 314 Manakins 316 Schiffornis 318 Peppershrikes and Vireos 320 Greenlets, Gnatcatchers, and Gnatwrens 322 Mockingbirds 324 Jays 324 Dippers 324 Martins and Swallows 326 Wrens 332 Solitaires and Thrushes 338 Euphonias and Chlorophonias 344 Siskins 348 Goldfinches and Pipits 350 New World Warblers 350 Oropendolas, Orioles, and Blackbirds 360 Bush-tanagers (Chlorospinguses) 366 Piranga Tanagers 368 Tanagers 370 Bananaquit 386 Dacnises 390 Honeycreepers 392 Hemispinguses 394 Tit-like Dacnis 394 Conebills 396 Flowerpiercers 396 Sparrows 400 Chestnut Munia 400 Brush-finches 402 Tanager Finch 406 Plushcap 406 Sierra-finches 408 Slaty Finch 408 Sicalis Finches 410 Crimson-breasted Finch 410 Grassquits 412 Warbling-finches 412 Seed-finches and Seedeaters 414 Grosbeaks 420 Saltators 422 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 424 APPENDIX I: SPECIES NOT INCLUDED 425 APPENDIX II: PHOTOGRAPHER CREDITS 428 GLOSSARY 431 SPECIES INDEX (ENGLISH AND SCIENTIFIC NAMES) 434

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"[Phytochemical Landscape] is written well, carefully documented, and adequately illustrated."--ChoiceTable of ContentsAcknowledgments ix 1. Introduction 1 1.1 A Matter of Perspective 3 1.2 The Nature of Feedback 4 1.3 Which Autotrophs and Which Traits? 6 1.4 Trait Variation and Trait Diversity 7 1.5 Which Trophic Interactions? 9 1.6 Which Ecosystem Processes? 10 1.7 Webs of Green and Brown 11 2. The Phytochemical Landscape 13 2.1 Defining the Phytochemical Landscape 13 2.2 Variation on the Phytochemical Landscape 17 3. The Variable Chemistry of Primary Production 24 3.1 The Challenging Chemistry of Autotrophs 24 3.2 Origins of Variation in Autotroph Chemistry on the Phytochemical Landscape 25 3.3 Microbial Symbionts and Variation in Autotroph Chemistry: Whose Phenotype Is It Anyway? 30 3.4 Summary and Conclusions 38 4. Effects of Primary Producer Chemistry on Trophic Interactions 39 4.1 Herbivores and Herbivory: The Interactive Effects of Autotroph Chemistry and Natural Enemies 39 4.2 Effects of the Phytochemical Landscape on Natural Enemies 91 5. Effects of Trophic Interactions on the Chemistry of Primary Producers 109 5.1 Background 109 5.2 Effects of Herbivores and Predators on Autotroph Community Structure 111 5.3 Consumer Effects on Succession-Temporal Change on the Phytochemical Landscape 121 5.4 Phytochemical Induction-A Multiplier of Variation in Autotroph Chemistry on the Phytochemical Landscape 124 6. Effects of Autotroph Chemistry on Nutrient Dynamics 138 6.1 The Elements of Life 138 6.2 Recalcitrant Organic Chemistry 142 6.3 Nutrients, Stoichiometry, and the Decomposition of Autotroph Residues 148 6.4 Effects of Autotroph Identity and Diversity on Nutrient Dynamics 153 6.5 Effects of Phytoplankton Residue Chemistry on Nutrient Dynamics in Aquatic Ecosystems 160 6.6 Effects of Phytoplankton Stoichiometry on Nutrient Dynamics in Aquatic Ecosystems 168 7. Effects of Nutrient Availability on the Chemistry of Primary Producers 173 7.1 Introduction 173 7.2 Effects of Nutrient Dynamics on the Chemical Phenotype of Individual Autotrophs 175 7.3 Effects of Nutrient Availability on Primary Producer Diversity 185 7.4 Evolutionary Effects of Nutrient Availability on Autotroph Chemistry 192 7.5 Conclusions 195 8. Linking Trophic Interactions with Ecosystem Nutrient Dynamics on the Phytochemical Landscape 198 8.1 Putting It All Together: Linking Cycles and Generating Feedback 198 8.2 From Trophic Interactions to Ecosystem Processes 199 8.3 Effects of Herbivory on Nutrient Dynamics 200 8.4 Effects of Predators on Nutrient Dynamics 227 8.5 Effects of Nutrient Dynamics on Trophic Interactions 236 8.6 Final Thoughts on Feedback Loops 247 9. Synthesis and Prospects for Future Work 252 9.1 Introduction 252 9.2 Priority 1: Let's Make Some Maps 253 9.3 Priority 2: Assess the Frequency and Strength of Spatial Correlation 254 9.4 Priority 3: Understanding Time Lags and the Temporal Scale of Spatial Correlation on the Phytochemical Landscape 255 9.5 Priority 4: Exploring Variation in the Strength of Feedback between Trophic Interactions and Nutrient Dynamics on the Phytochemical Landscape 262 9.6 Priority 5: Comparing the Role of the Phytochemical Landscape in Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecosystems 272 9.7 Concluding Remarks 274 References Cited 277 Index 347

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Book SynopsisIncludes four major national parks - Lake Nakuru, Lake Bogoria, Mount Longonot, and Hell's Gate - as well as smaller outstanding wildlife areas. This book looks at the more than 300 bird species most likely to be encountered on safari in this world-famous region, from Lake Magadi in the south to Lake Baringo in the north.Trade Review"I wish I had the opportunity to have this book in my bag on my trip to this bird paradise some years ago. It would certainly have made identification much easier. The layout of the photographic guide is so helpful."--Derek Moore, Derek Bird Brain "Ideal for the traveler on safari visiting the Rift Valley's national parks, such as Lake Nakuru, Lake Bogoria, Mount Longonot, and Hell's Gate. The value of a book like the Birds of Kenya's Rift Valley is that it lends itself to easy interpretation and use by those who are interested in birdwatching, those who are interested in conservation, and those who care about biodiversity in general."--Gabriel Thoumi, Mongabay.com "Kennedy's new book would serve most safari goers well in Kenya's Rift Valley, and its great photos make it a worthy addition to any birder's bookshelf."--Robert F. Foster, Canadian Field-Naturalist "Superb layout ... Both books have a thoroughly modern feel about them, thanks to the wizards of the WILDGuides production team ... Those for whom these books are really intended will find their visits to these bird-rich regions hugely enhanced."--Martin Kelsey, IBIS, Journal of the British Ornithologists' Union "The friendly text is supported by a superb layout: hundreds of excellent photographs with great use of background tones means that colour leaps out of each page, yet the blocks of text are masterfully visible and easy to read."--Martin Kelsey, IBISTable of ContentsAbout this book 9 The geography of Kenya's Rift Valley 13 Lakes and marsh 14 Up in the air 16 Birds of prey 17 Grassland and open areas 18 Woodland, scrub & garden 20 Nightbirds 22 Maps of the Rift Valley 23 BIRDS OF LAKE AND MARSH Pelicans - Great White and Pink-backed Pelicans 26 Darter and cormorants - African Darter and Reed and Great Cormorants 28 Egrets - Yellow-billed, Little and Great White Egrets 30 Small herons - Cattle Egret and Squacco and Striated Herons 32 Grey herons - Black-crowned Night-heron and Grey and Black-headed Herons 34 Dark herons and Hamerkop - Goliath and Purple Herons and Hamerkop 36 Dark storks - Abdim's, Black and African Open-billed Storks 38 White storks - Saddle-billed, White and Yellow-billed Storks 40 Spoonbill and Marabou - African Spoonbill and Marabou Stork 42 Flamingos - Greater and Lesser Flamingos 44 Ibises - Sacred, Glossy and Hadada Ibises 46 Crane and whistling ducks - Grey Crowned Crane and Fulvous and White-faced Whistling Ducks 48 Geese - Spur-winged and Egyptian Goose and Knob-billed Duck 50 Ducks: 1 - Cape, Hottentot and Red-billed Teal 52 Ducks: 2 - Southern Pochard, Northern Shoveler and Yellow-billed Duck 54 Grebe, coot and moorhen - Little Grebe, Red-knobbed Coot and Common Moorhen 56 Gallinule, crake and jacana - Purple Swamphen, Black Crake and African Jacana 58 Ruff, painted-snipe and snipe - Ruff, Greater Painted-snipe and Common Snipe 60 Avocet, stilt and godwit - Pied Avocet, Black-winged Stilt and Black-tailed Godwit 62 Thick-knees - Spotted, Water and Senegal Thick-knees 64 Small plovers - Chestnut-banded, Three-banded, Kittlitz's and Common Ringed Plovers 66 Sandpipers - Wood, Common and Green Sandpipers 68 Waders - Little Stint, Common Greenshank and Marsh Sandpiper 70 Plovers - Blacksmith, Crowned and Spur-winged Plovers 72 Plover and gull - African Wattled Plover and Grey-headed Gull 74 Terns - White-winged Black, Gull-billed and Whiskered Terns 76 Kingfishers - Malachite, Giant and Pied Kingfishers 78 Wagtails - Yellow, Mountain and African Pied Wagtails 80 UP IN THE AIR Dark-rumped swifts - Mottled, African Palm, Alpine, Common and Nyanza Swifts 82 White-rumped swifts - Little, Horus and White-rumped Swifts 84 Resident swallows - Mosque , Red-rumped, Lesser Striped and Wire-tailed Swallows 86 Swallows and martins - Barn Swallow and Plain, Banded and Rock Martins 88 BIRD OF PREY Vultures - Ruppell's, White-backed, Hooded and Lappet-faced Vultures 90 Vultures in flight - all species for comparison plus Verreaux's Eagle 92 Large pied eagles and buzzard - Martial and African Fish Eagles and Augur Buzzard 94 Large dark eagles - Verreaux's, Steppe and Tawny Eagles 96 Medium-sized brown raptors - Black Kite, Common Buzzard and Long-crested Eagle 98 Raptors in flight - all large species for comparison 100 Harriers - Pallid, Montagu's and Western Marsh Harriers 102 Goshawk, Bateleur and Harrier Hawk - Dark Chanting Goshawk, Bateleur and African Harrier Hawk 104 Small pale raptors - Gabar Goshawk, - African Black-shouldered Kite and Pygmy Falcon 106 Falcons - Eurasian Hobby, Lanner Falcon and Common Kestrel 108 BIRDS OF GRASSLAND AND OPEN AREAS Ostrich and Southern Ground Hornbill - Ostrich and Southern Ground Hornbill 110 Bustard and gamebirds - Black-bellied Bustard, Yellow-necked Spurfowl and Helmeted Guineafowl 112 Coursers and plover - Heuglin's and Temminck's Coursers and Black-headed Plover 114 Larks - Rufous-naped, Red-capped and Pink-breasted Larks 116 Lark, pipit and longclaw - Fischer's Sparrow Lark, Grassland Pipit and Yellow-throated Longclaw 118 Resident chats - Northern Anteater Chat and Capped and Abyssinian Wheatears 120 Migrant chats - Northern and Pied Wheatears and Whinchat 122 Crows - Cape Rook, Pied Crow and Fan-tailed Raven 124 Widowbirds - Long-tailed and Red-collared Widowbirds 126 Widowbird and bishops - Jackson's Widowbird and Northern Red and Yellow Bishops 128 Cisticolas and Quailfinch - Winding, Stout and Desert Cisticolas and African Quailfinch 130 BIRDS OF WOODS, SCRUB AND GARDEN Francolins - Scaly, Crested and Hildebrandt's Francolins 132 Pigeons and doves - Laughing Dove and Speckled and African Olive Pigeons 134 'Collared' doves - African Mourning, Red-eyed and Ring-necked Doves 136 Namaqua and wood doves - Namaqua and Blue-spotted and Emerald-spotted Wood Doves 138 Green pigeon and parrots - African Green Pigeon, Meyer's Parrot and hybrid lovebird 140 Large cuckoos and relatives - Red-chested Cuckoo, White-browed Coucal and White-bellied Go-away-bird 142 BIRDS OF WOODLAND, SCRUB AND GARDEN (continued) Green cuckoos and wood-hoopoe - Klaas's and Diederik Cuckoos and Green Wood-hoopoe 144 Hoopoe and mousebirds - Hoopoe and Blue-naped and Speckled Mousebirds 146 Kingfishers - Striped, Woodland and Grey-headed Kingfishers 148 Bee-eaters: 1 - White-throated, Blue-cheeked and Eurasian Bee-eaters 150 Bee-eaters: 2 - White-fronted, Cinnamon-chested and Little Bee-eaters 152 Rollers - Rufous-crowned, Lilac-breasted and Eurasian Rollers 154 Hornbills: 1 - Von der Decken's, Jackson's and Red-billed Hornbills 156 Hornbills: 2 - Hemprich's, Eastern Yellow-billed and African Grey Hornbills 158 Barbets: 1 - Red-and-yellow, D'Arnaud's and Red-fronted Barbets 160 Barbets: 2 - White-headed and Spot-flanked Barbets and Red-fronted Tinkerbird 162 Honeyguides and woodpecker - Lesser and Greater Honeyguides and African Grey Woodpecker 164 Woodpeckers - Nubian, Cardinal and Bearded Woodpeckers 166 Babblers - Black-lored, Arrow-marked and Brown Babblers and Rufous Chatterer 168 Bulbul, thrush and scrub robin - Common Bulbul, Spotted Palm Thrush and White-browed Scrub Robin 170 Colourful chats - Common and Little Rock Thrushes and Mocking Cliff Chat 172 Thrush and robin chats - Olive Thrush and White-browed and Cape Robin Chats 174 Tchagras and Brubru - Brown-crowned and Three-streaked Tchagras and Brubru 176 White-headed 'shrikes' - Grey-crested and White Helmetshrikes and Northern White-crowned Shrike 178 Shrikes - Red-backed Shrike and Grey-backed and Common Fiscals 180 Oriole and bushshrikes - Black-headed Oriole and Grey-headed and Sulphur-breasted Bushshrike 182 Cuckooshrike, boubou and puffback - Black Cuckooshrike, Tropical Boubou and Black-backed Puffback 184 Black birds of woodland edge - Common Drongo, Slate-coloured Boubou and Northern Black Flycatcher 186 Attractive flycatchers of woods and gardens - White-eyed Slaty and African Paradise Flycatchers 188 Nondescript flycatchers - Spotted, Pale and African Grey Flycatchers 190 Warblers and prinia - Rattling Cisticola, Grey Wren Warbler and Tawny-flanked Prinia 192 Green warblers - Grey-backed Camaroptera, Yellow-breasted Apalis and Grey-capped Warbler 194 Crombec and warblers - Northern Crombec and Red-fronted and Buff-bellied Warblers 196 Batis, tit and white-eye - Chin-spot Batis, White-bellied Tit and African Yellow White-eye 198 Starlings and oxpecker - Ruppell's and Wattled Starlings and Red-billed Oxpecker 200 Starlings - Greater Blue-eared, Red-winged and Bristle-crowned Starlings 202 Brightly coloured starlings - Superb, Hildebrandt's and Violet-backed Starlings 204 Sunbirds: 1 - Variable, Eastern Violet-backed, and Collared Sunbirds 206 Sunbirds: 2 - Marico, Scarlet-chested and Amethyst Sunbirds 208 Long-tailed sunbirds - Bronze, Tacazze and Beautiful Sunbirds 210 Sparrows - House, Kenya Rufous and Grey-headed Sparrows 212 Petronia and small brown weavers - Yellow-spotted Petronia and Speckle-fronted and Grey-capped Social Weavers 214 Buffalo and sparrow weavers - White-billed and White-headed Buffalo Weavers and White-browed Sparrow Weaver 216 Yellow weavers: 1 - Village , Speke's and Lesser Masked Weavers 218 Yellow weavers: 2 - Northern Masked, Little and Golden-backed Weavers 220 Yellow weavers: 3 - Holub's Golden, Spectacled and Black-necked Weavers 222 Grosbeak and yellow weavers: 4 - Grosbeak, Vitelline Masked and Baglafecht Weavers 224 Waxbills - Common, Crimson-rumped and Black-cheeked Waxbills 226 Whydah and cordon-bleus - Pin-tailed Whydah and Red-cheeked and Blue-capped Cordon-bleus 228 Waxbills and whydah - Green-winged Pytilia, Bronze Mannikin and Eastern Paradise Whydah 230 Waxbills and indigobird - Purple Grenadier, Red-billed Firefinch and Village Indigobird 232 Canaries - African Citril and Brimstone and White-bellied Canaries 234 Buntings and seedeater - Cinnamon-breasted and Golden-breasted Buntings and Streaky Seedeater 236 NIGHT BIRDS Nightjar and owls - Slender-tailed Nightjar and Barn and African Wood Owls 238 Small owls - African Scops and Northern White-faced Scops Owls and Pearl-spotted Owlet 240 Eagle owls - Spotted, Verreaux's and Greyish Eagle Owls 242 Further reading and useful resources 244 Acknowledgements 245 Photographic credits 246 Scientific names of the bird species included in this book 247 Index 252 Short Index inside back cover

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