ORNITHOLOGICAL LITERATURE 
193 
implemented. Among many examples, a study 
suggesting that American Black-billed Magpies 
[Pica hudsonia ) should be separated from those in 
Europe at the species level is cited but the split is 
not made. The paragraph on Distribution notes the 
worldwide range of the species, sometimes with 
information on habitat and migratory behavior, 
particularly where the latter is geographically 
variable. 
The paragraph on Status is, as the book title 
suggests, the heart of the account. For rarer 
species, there is usually a record of first 
occurrence in Britain and/or Ireland, and an 
indication of the number of records with the 
amount of detail depending on frequency of 
occurrence. Some interesting tidbits show up, 
such as the first Wilson’s Phalarope ( Phalaropus 
tricolor ) being recorded within —80 km 
(50 miles) of the birthplace of Alexander 
Wilson. The first record of Pallid Swift ( Apus 
pallidus ), a museum specimen, was not identi¬ 
fied until 75 years after its collection. For more 
abundant or regularly occurring species, there 
may be information on the size of populations in 
various places, including increases or declines 
over time and probable reasons for such changes. 
Extensive long-term monitoring studies, dis¬ 
cussed in the Introduction, permit detailed 
analysis for some species, particularly seabirds 
and waterfowl. The amount of detail in these 
sections is impressive. 
An Appendix provides useful species lists, by 
subspecies, coded by category of occurrence and 
origin (native, introduced), for each of four 
geopolitical areas—Great Britain, Republic of 
Ireland, Northern Ireland, and The Isle of Man. 
A second Appendix is a list of species whose 
occurrence in those islands is believed not to be of 
natural causes, such as escaped cage birds. 
There is a wealth of information in this book, 
probably more than most of us in North America 
want or need to know about British birds. 
Actually, it might make us jealous that we don’t 
know as much about most American birds, or at 
least don’t have it all in one handy volume. I 
recommend this book not only as a source of 
information but as a model of how to present 
important information. It is a worthy addition to 
both individual and institutional libraries.— 
RICHARD C. BANKS, Department of Verte¬ 
brate Zoology, National Museum of Natural 
History, P. O. Box 37012, Washington, D.C. 
20013, USA; e-mail: banksr@si.edu 
THE BIRDS OF BARBADOS. By P. A. 
Buckley, Edward B. Massiah, Maurice B. Hutt, 
Francine G. Buckley, and Hazel F. Hutt. British 
Ornithologists’ Union Checklist Number 24. 
2009: 295 pages, 78 color plates, and 5 line 
drawings. ISBN: 978-0-907446-29-3. $70.40 
(cloth).—An isolated outcrop of coral limestone 
— 160 km east of the main chain of Lesser 
Antillean islands, the island of Barbados unsur¬ 
prisingly hosts a relatively depauperate avifauna 
for its size, represented by only 30 native breeding 
species of which only one is endemic, plus one 
that is extinct and seven introduced species that 
have become successfully established. As a 
consequence it may seem odd that a hefty 295- 
page monograph, the 24th contribution to the 
British Ornithologists’ Union checklist series, 
could be dedicated to the birds of Barbados. But 
what the island lacks in native species is made up 
for by an astonishingly long list of visitors, 
migrants, and vagrants due to its unique geograph¬ 
ical position in the migrator)' crossroads between 
North America and South America, and especially 
as a landfall for trans-Atlantic vagrants of Palearc- 
tic birds—including some that have occurred 
nowhere else in the Western Hemisphere, which 
gives Barbados its ornithological fame. 
Initiated in 1954 by Barbadian residents Maurice 
B. Hutt and Hazel F. Branch Hutt, The Birds of 
Barbados is the long-anticipated culmination of 
more than half a century of compilation and writing. 
In 1993 the Hutts invited P. A. Buckley and Francine 
G. Buckley to join them as coauthors of a growing 
manuscript and shortly afterward they were joined 
by Barbadian birders Edward B. Massiah and Martin 
D. Frost. Unfortunately, the Hutts died before the 
manuscript was completed, first Hazel in 1997 and 
then Maurice in 1998, and Frost later dropped out of 
the project as a coauthor due to other commitments, 
although his substantial contributions clearly merit 
his inclusion as a coauthor. 
Typical of the BOU’s checklist series, The 
Birds of Barbados comprises much more than an 
“annotated checklist.” It is an exceptionally 
scholarly and detailed summary of not just the 
island’s avifauna, but also many aspects of its 
natural history, which partially explains why it 
took so long for the authors to complete the 
manuscript. No less than 25 pages are devoted to 
detailed descriptions of the island’s topogra¬ 
phy, geology, pedology, climate, weather, winds, 
freshwater and wetlands, vegetation and floristics, 
freshwater fishes, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, 
