other recent tomes contain remarkably Jordan-shaped holes in them. As one 
of the major countries straddling the ecotone between the >4editerranean and 
the Saharo-Sindian desert zones, and thus containing many species at the edge 
of their world ranges, the often obscure distribution and status of birds in 
Jordan has remained a problem for many a researcher. This book now pro- 
vides answers to many of these questions. 
To place the book in context it is worth summarising the state of previous 
knowledge. Two other English language books have also been recently pub- 
lished on the birds of Jordan. One (Disi & Bouran 1987) was the first annotat- 
ed checklist ever compiled for the country, but it contained often inadequate 
or misleading information on status (see review in OSME Bulletin 21:33-34). 
The other was coffee-table type book designed as a vehicle for the author's 
photographs, and thus covered only a minority of the species known from 
Jordan {Birds of Jordan, Ramadan Bakig & Horani 1992), with little hard infor- 
mation on status (see review in OSME Bulletin 33:31-32). There are two other 
relevant works in Arabic. Jordanian Wild Birds (Disi & Bouran 1990) is a paper- 
back in the ICBP Small Bird Book series, designed to promote interest in birds 
and birdwatching amongst schoolchildren of the Mediterranean region, cover- 
ing only a selection of the commoner species and with a standard text and for- 
mat across all Mediterranean countries. As such the book is not particularly 
useful or informative for the confirmed birdwatcher in Jordan. The second. 
Wild Birds of Jordan (Shafei 1988) is based on the author's wide experience both 
in the field and as curator of the Jordan Natural History Museum at Yarmouk 
University. It bears the stamp of authority that the other books discussed 
have lacked, and I know that it has certainly proved very useful to Jordanians 
carrying out bird surveys. 
Now we have Ian Andrews' privately published book, based mainly on his 
wide travels in the country during three years residence between 1989 and 
1992, but also incorporating all previously published literature known to him 
as well as many unpublished observations, most notably those by Jorg 
Wittenberg. The design, layout and overall 'look' of the book is explicitly 
modelled on Colin Richardson's superbly user-friendly Birds of the Utiited Arab 
Emirates. There are all the special sections that a birdwatcher on a short holi- 
day or a newcomer to Jordan could want: good country maps, a selection of 
birdwatching itineraries covering a representative spectrum of habitats and 
species, with details and sketch maps of routes; a chapter on the different 
habitats found in Jordan, supported by high quality photographs; a full check- 
list with tick boxes and a gazetteer of all localities mentioned in the text. 
Of course the main body of the book is the species accounts which summarise 
the distribution, abundance and monthly occurrence pattern of all species 
recorded in Jordan, often with additional short comments on other interesting 
subjects such as taxonomy or field identification. The book does not, however, 
cover the latter specifically or systematically, this being best left to the se\-eral 
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