36 
The Birds of Africa Vol. Ill by C. H. Fry, S. Keith and 
E. K. Urban. 1988. pp, XVI + 611, 32 colour plates by 
Martin Woodcock, numerous line drawings by Ian Willis. London; 
Academic Press. £71.50 . 
Another masterpiece: this third voluae of The Birds of Africa 
completes the non-passerines. It describes in detail, and 
illusurates beautifully Africa's parrots, turacos, cuckoos, owls, 
nightjars, swifts, colies, kingfishers and their allies, and 
woodpeckers and their allies. Although it may seem hard to believe 
Volume III is better than the previous two volumes. The layout has 
remained clear, attractive and easy to find one's way around and 
'Martin Woodcock's plates are of a higher standard than those in 
Volumes I and II. 
As in previous volumes each species account gives details of range 
and status, a description of field character, voice, general habits, 
food and breeding habits. Maps are used to convey not only 
distributions but also densities and migration routes. The simple, 
but often superb, black and white line drawings by Ian Willis are 
employed to show interesting or unusual postures and/or behaviour. 
Academic Press have once more excelled themselves in publishing a 
top quality book. 
Altogether editors, authors, artists and publishers must be warmly 
congratulated on producing a real ornithologist's feast. I suggest 
we all tuck in. 
Michael Rands 
Check-list of the Birds of Israel by Haim Hovel. 1987. Society 
for the Protection of Nature in Israel, Tel-Aviv. 196 pages. A few 
line drawings and one naap. £9.50 . 
Hot on the heels of Uzi Paz's The Birds of Israel (see Review OSME 
Bull . 18: 26-27), comes this second book on a country which was 
poorly documented prior to these two volumes. With Hadorara Shirihai 
currently at work on a third book we may soon have almost too many 
to choose from! 
Following a four page introduction, the author has included a very 
useful gazetteer listing all the places mentioned in the text and 
giving their longitude and latitude. This is accompanied by a 
fold-out nap of Israel showing the location of most of the important 
bird sites in Israel (though not all of them). The bulk of the book 
is taken up with a systematic list, followed by seven pages of 
references and both scientific and English indexes. 
The systematic list is of course the main part of the book. All 
species recorded up to the end of 198A are included and all of the 
subspecies occurring in Israel are listed and details given about 
them. For example tlie entry for Crested Lark Galerida cristata 
