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THE WILSON JOURNAL OF ORNITHOLOGY • Vol. 123. No. 2. June 2011 
climate change on Antarctic food webs, and even 
the behavioral and sensory ecology of extinct 
species. Each of these concepts and themes has 
been featured in classic and recent, high profile 
general and specialist peer-reviewed articles and 
popular press highlights, confirming that avian 
research from New Zealand continues to generate 
broad impacts on the advance of not only 
ornithology but biology in general. 
Against this background of ornithological 
discoveries in New Zealand sensu lain , the new 
edition of its ornithological Checklist provides a 
much needed comprehensive and up-to-date guide 
to the taxomony. distribution, and diversity of 
extant and extinct avian taxa. A "checklist* is not 
the type of book that one reads in one sitting from 
cover to cover or for aesthetic pleasure and its 
value becomes evident when it is used for a 
specific purpose. For example, we write our 
positive evaluation and enthusiastic recommenda¬ 
tion because it is based on fresh experience: our 
review of the Checklist was completed immedi¬ 
ately after having worked on a manuscript 
concerning the molecular phylogeny of New 
Zealand’s songbirds. We used the Checklist 
extensively to confirm the New Zealand occur¬ 
rence of particular species and to obtain the 
citation of the original scientific description, 
nomenclature, synonyms, and current classifica¬ 
tion ot all the species included in our analyses. 
Access to a comprehensively assembled and 
carefully prooled data base is critically important 
in systematic, comparative, and species-lcvel 
research. For example, there remain inconsisten¬ 
cies in applying unique English names for each 
New Zealand bird species because of overlap with 
existing English names of birds from other 
biogeographic regions; to illustrate, the Brown 
Creeper (Pipipi) (Finschia \Mohoua] novaesee- 
landiae) of New Zealand is phylogenetically 
distinct from the Brown Treecreeper (CUmaeteris 
picumnus) of nearby Australia and the Brown 
Creeper of North America (Certhia americana). 
Regarding local common names, the Checklist 
also provides an appendix of a valuable and 
informative list of Maori terms in use for native 
bird species, but here again many names overlap 
to include several species or higher taxonomic 
units. Finally, because of ongoing scientific 
discoveries, there has been a distinctive flux of 
the Latin names ol the species, genus, and family 
assignments of Australasian, including New 
Zealand, bird taxa. The value of the new Checklist 
is that these sources are compiled, detailed, 
checked, and referenced. 
The Checklist begins with a highly informative 
introduction to its content, including sections on 
the treatment of extinct and introduced bird 
species, and the use of species-specific ectopar¬ 
asites for identifying avian host taxa. It is then 
intuitively organized in a top-down fashion, first 
by taxonomic Subclass, then Order, Suborder. 
Family. Genus, and finally species and subspe¬ 
cies. A direct symbol system is used to easily 
distinguish introduced and extinct species. The 
Checklist does a wonderful job detailing the 
classification of species within diverse Orders 
where placements have been historically, and 
even recently, difficult and complex; notably 
within the Cuculiformcs and Passeriformes. The 
author members of the Checklist Committee, by 
their own admission, have been quite careful and 
conservative in their assignment of taxonomic 
classifications, to come to a consensus for the 
placement of all 435 species listed in the book. To 
the benefit of the reader, the authors provide 
justification where necessary for the decision of 
opting for one published classification over 
another. Indeed, the book is worth picking up 
just for the history of taxonomic and phylogenetic 
classification histories alone! For example, the 
endemic Whitehead ( Mohnua alhicilla) has been 
referred to by 15 different Latin names since 
1830. when it was originally designated Fringilla 
alhicilla. Similarly, the South Island Rifleman 
(Acanthisitta chloris chloris) of the endemic New 
Zealand wren lineage has undergone 16 Latin 
name alternatives since 1787. Latin names in prior 
use are fully cited, should the reader have an 
interest in following a particular species' taxo¬ 
nomic history. 
Each species entry provides fully dated (where 
possible) information on present and historical 
ranges within the New Zealand bio-political 
region, including the New Zealand archipelago 
itself and all of its outlying islands, Macquarie 
and Norfolk Islands of Australia, and the Ross 
Dependency in Antarctica. Historical ranges are 
olten presented with evidence inclusive of the 
fossil record, which we found particularly appeal¬ 
ing. The authors also give detailed information 
regarding year-round, migratory, and breeding 
ranges. Many details are devoted to the descrip¬ 
tion of New Zealand's diverse and numerous 
extinct avian taxa with fossil-record evidence and 
last-sightings given, where possible. There are 
