ORNITHOLOGICAL LITERATURE 
423 
of the West Indies) and for individual islands. The 
book by Kirwan et al. begins with 30 pages of 
introduction covering travel advice, accommoda¬ 
tion, climate and clothing, safety, health and 
medicine, books, maps, and seasons. Attention is 
given to keeping costs moderate, but a gratifying 
feature is that the book does not dwell on how to 
find the right bus, hitchhike, or find birds on S5.00 
per day. Birding has become expensive and the 
bright side is that ecotourism may promote 
conservation. The new Guide emphasizes the 
species endemic to individual islands or to the 
Greater Antilles and is directed al bird watchers in 
general as well as '‘listers” or “twitchers”. 
There is a brief introduction and a map for each 
island with numbered localities corresponding to 
sites that are described (but not necessarily in the 
order in which they appear in the text). Birding 
localities are listed for Cuba (48 sites including 18 
on the Zapata Peninsula). Jamaica (6 sites), 
Hispaniola (12 sites), Puerto Rico (12 sites), and 
Caymans (6 sites). There is an introductory 
paragraph for each locality with the location or 
directions, site birding strategy, and a list of birds. 
The latter are often listed as “possibilities", when 
it would have been more helpful to have sorted 
out the “probabilities”, even to the point of 
percent of trips observed. The text is generally 
clear and useful, although some sections would 
benefit from attention to sentence structure and 
more paragraph breaks. 
The most valuable pages for many birders, 
including this reviewer, concern Cuba which 
remains terra incognita. The 48 pages pro¬ 
vide never-before seen details on how to see 
almost all of Cuba's endemic species. Not hav¬ 
ing been to Cuba, l cannot comment on the 
location details, but the lists of accessible 
endemics elicits salivation. Increasing field 
experience in the past decade and knowledge¬ 
able guides, make it possible to see almost all of 
them. The Ivory-billed Woodpecker ( Campephi - 
lus principalis ), however, has not been observed 
in the past 25 years, despite several intensive 
searches. 
Jamaica and Puerto Rico are much smaller than 
Cuba. Their avifauna is more familiar, and the 
endemics on both islands are virtually all 
accessible on a short trip. The casual birder to 
Jamaica will miss several species that are believed 
extinct, such as the endemic petrel and poorwill, 
which I sought in vain —50 years ago. 
I "tested” the Jamaican and Puerto Rican sites 
where I had personal experience and found the 
site descriptions clear and lists complete. I cannot 
comment on the accommodation information 
(many of them are quite new). However, the 
directions are clear and, at times, illustrated with 
maps. The birds listed generally match what I 
found there. I was amazed that some species, 
particularly West Indian Whistling Duck {Den- 
dr ocygna arborea) are now reported from many 
localities, indicating a gratifying population 
increase. Twenty to 40 years ago this was a tough 
species more often sought in vain than seen. In 
contrast, in 1972 there was a lookout in Luquillo 
Forest where one could be confident of seeing 
wild Puerto Rican Amazon (Amazona vittata) fly¬ 
bys in the early morning. Ironically, at that time 
the population was near its nadir of 13 known 
individuals (1975). whereas it is currently more 
stable at —40 birds (2006). 
A lew pages are devoted to the Caymans, where 
the main target is a parrot. Jamaica with only six 
sites (the same number devoted to the Caymans), 
may seem to get short shrift. However, the nice 
thing about Jamaica is its relative ease of birding 
with Hardwar Gap and Windsor Cave, still the 
most productive sites, yielding a large majority of 
the island endemics. The 20 pages devoted to 
Puerto Rico will get bialcrs onto most of the 
endemics and near endemics. It is particularly 
gratifying that the best location for the Elfin 
Woods Warbler ( Dendroica angelae) is Marieao 
Forest, a population that Guy Tudor. David Hill, 
and I discovered in 1972 in the same month the 
species was formally described in Auk. This well- 
marked warbler, discovered in 1968 by Angela 
Kepler in Luquillo Forest, created quite a stir 
among the museum “crowd” that was incredu¬ 
lous that such a species could remain undiscov¬ 
ered for so long in such a well-studied avifauna. 
Hispaniola is a large island with a large number 
of endemics and near endemics, but relatively few 
well-established birding locations, virtually all in 
the Dominican Republic, A visit to the Sierra de 
Bahoruco area should produce most of the more 
elusive endemics, although apparently the road to 
Aguacate is in no better condition than we found it 
in 1972. There are several new birding sites, that 
were not well known 40 years ago, and some of 
these have official protection. Haiti's only en¬ 
demic is the Gray-crowned Tanagcr (Phaenico- 
pliilits poliocephalus), a species one may choose 
to skip to avoid a depressing and potentially 
hostile tourist environment. However, the book 
