ations of the terminology in back

(rather than at the front) of the book-

let, the use of too many abbreviations

which requires the reader to constant-

ly refer back to tl;le explanations, and

the lack of a species index which

makes it difficult to find a bird's

field marks (which, for several spe-

cies, appear piecemeal on two or three

different pages).

The real value of this key comes

when it describes those rare or acci-

dental Eurasian species which are not

adequately covered in our standard

field guides; it even covers a few

which have yet to be recorded in

North America. Thus, it should be

useful on your next visit to Attu.

However, this booklet does no more

than a field guide to help the reader

in, for example, Minnesota, who

thinks he might be on to a Ruff, Cur-

lew Sandpiper or Sharp-tailed Sand-

piper. It even fails to accurately sort

through the not-all-that-difficult is-

sue of "peep" identification. The rusty

back plumage and slightly decurved

bill of the Least Sandpiper, both very

useful marks, are not adequately

stressed, and the claim that the Least

has "a rather dark chest relative to

other peeps" is wrong (Baird's Sand-

pipers and breeding plumaged Sander-

lings are darker). The distinctive and

diagnostic contrast of grayish back vs.

huffy head/ chest of many Baird's

Sandpipers is not mentioned. The

grayer appearance of most Semipal-

mated Sandpipers relative to other

peeps is not adequately stressed, nor

is there any mention of the White-

rumped Sandpiper's slightly decurved

bill.

At any rate, this booklet is some-

what useful, not without its problems,

and a supplement, but not a worthy

alternative, to your field guide.

-Kim R. Eckert

Peter Alden and John Gooders. Find-

ing Birds Around the World. Houghton

Mifflin, Boston, 1981; 715 pages, 115

maps; $17.95.

Spring 1982

One of the aspects of the explosion

of interest in birds over the last two

decades is the extension of the range

of many birders' knowledge and inter-

est from their home area to their en-

tire region or country and even to

other continents. This new book is a

startling manifestation of how far this

phenomenon has progressed. Since

there are lengthy guides devoted to

places to find birds in a single state,

it would seem presumptuous if not

impossible to try to do this for the

whole planet, but Alden and Gooders

have done just that, with great success.

There could never be exact agree-

ment on the best localities but their

111 selections look very respectable.

The selections for North America, for

example, are certainly better than

those in Harrison's Roger Tory Peter-

son's Dozen Birding Hotspots, and, all

things considered, this book is more

useful than that much longer treat-

ment. Each location has a brief (one to

four page) description, a serviceable

hand-drawn map, and a list of birds

to be found , representing "99 percent

of all individual birds to be seen in

a visit and between 80 and 90 percent

of the known avifauna." The informa-

tion for the localities with which I am

familiar appears to be accurate and

current, and I would have greatly

benefitted if this book had been avail-

able during my visits. Their short in-

troduction to such topics as "Health"

and "Birding in the field" is quite

good, and their bibliography is very

thorough, making this an invaluable

first reference for the avifauna of

any region.

Although these two authors are

probably as qualified as any for this

staggering task, the real secret be-

hind the quality of the book is that

they solicited help from many other

experts. For example, the chapter on

Itatiaia National Park in Brazil was

written with assistance from Helio

Gouveia, Lee Morgan, Ted Parker,

Robert Ridgely, and Helmut Sick.

Their list of contributors reads like a

Who's Who of field ornithology: Vic-

41