41 
REVIEWS 
A Field Guide to Birds of Prey in the Middle East, by Bertel Brunn and 
Assad Serhal, illustrations by Arthur Singer and Sherif Baha, maps by 
Peter Bruun. Arabic, 1988. 95 pages. Holy Land Conservation Fund and 
Society for the Protection of Nature in Lebanon. $10 post free from SPNL, 
P. 0. Box 11-5665, Beirut, Lebanon. 
A hearty welcome for this well-produced, slim and attractive guide, 
clearly printed in classical Arabic. A. real pocket book, it measures 
•barely 7| x 4^ inches, and is only | inch thick, yet has an astonishing 95 
pages. 
The interest of most Arabic readers will be in the details of 
identification, but these do not start until page 31, when 57 species of 
diurnal raptors which occur in the Middle East, Europe and Africa are 
well described, with details of habitat, field characters, food, 
movements, breeding and voice. 
The text is accompanied by 48 black-and-white thumbnail sketch maps, 
showing each species' breeding range. These raaps lack national boundaries 
and omit islands as important as Bahrain and Socotra. The real criticism 
here is that the information shown is in some cases out of date; taking 
Oman as an example, the breeding of Lappet-faced Vulture and Golden Eagle 
(both published in 1982) are omitted, and an old and disproved record of 
the nesting of Steppe Eagle is show by '?'. 
Fourteen of the 18 colour plates are very successful reproductions from 
The Hamlyn Guide to Birds of Britain and Europe , though the 300+ 
individual illustrations are small and have had to be packed closely to 
each plate (there are 29 of harriers on page 75). This may be a 
disadvantage to new-comers. The remaining four plates, by Sherif Baha, 
are of equally good quality. 
The introductory chapters take up 24 pages, and deal thoroughly and 
clearly with use of the book, geography, classification, plumage and 
physical characters, breeding, migration, birds of prey and Man (an 
impassioned plea to protect raptors), and an essay on falconry. The 
selected bibliography is in English and curiously omits such additions in 
Arabic as Tuyur Oman (1985). 
Faced with the dilemma of whether this guide should be for beginners (in 
birds and written Arabic) or for the better-educated observer and student 
