BOOK REVIEWS- Nebraska Bird Review December 1983

Copyright 1983, Nebraska Ornithologists' Union. Used by permission.

Abstract

Bird Conservation: No.1, Stanley A. Temple, Editor, 148 pp. 6 x 9, The University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, Wis. No index, paper. $12.95.

This is the first in a planned series of yearbooks to be issued by the U.S. Section of the International Council for Bird Preservation. It is intended that each yearbook will present a series of reports on a specific conservation issue or program submitted by biologists active in the field - in this case, on the conservation efforts for the Peregrine Falcon, the Bald Eagle, and the California Condor. Then a section presenting current, concise reports and updates on conservation news, and finally a review of bird conservation literature, in some cases annotated. It is intended for and should be of interest to anyone seriously concerned about bird conservation.

The Care and Breeding of Seed-eating Birds, Finches and Allied Species - Doves, Quail and Hemipodes. Jeffery Trollope, 336 pp. 5% x8%, Blandford Press, England, Sterling Publishing Co. Inc., New York, bibliography, indexed, hardbound, $17.95.

This book in intended for those who are, or hope to be, beyond the cage bird level and into the aviary level of bird raising. The first four chapters are on general principles: Accommodation, Nutrition and Food, Obtaining Stock and Management, and Breeding. The author then discusses, species by species, about 200 species, (50 of them shown in a 16-page color section). Material common to a genus or family is covered before an individual species is discussed. This discussion covers other names, and possibly volume of imports (into Britain), breeding success, related species, and then Description, Distribution and Habitat, Breeding, Voice, and Behavior, and may run up to two pages, or less than a page, depending on how much information is available and how much has been given under genus, family, or similar species. People who have cage birds of species discussed (Canaries and Budgerigars are not) probably could learn from the species account; people who run a number of feeders might benefit from his comments on buying and storing quantities of feed, and maybe from his advice to feed each kind separately, so you will know who uses it, and how much is actually used. And anyone in the aviary stage could benefit from the review of general principles, and from the species accounts of prospective new species.