The Wilson Journal of Ornithology 124(1): 191-197. 2012 
Ornithological Literature 
Margaret A. Voss. Book Review Editor 
BIRDS OF HAWAII. NEW ZEALAND AND 
THE CENTRAL AND WEST PACIFIC. By Ber 
van Perlo, illustrated by the author. Princeton 
University Press, Princeton. New Jersey. USA. 
2011: 256 pages. 95 numbered color plates, and 
numerous unnumbered text figures and range 
maps. ISBN: 978-0-691-15188-5. $29.95 (soft 
cover).—As the senior author and illustrator of A 
field guide to the birch of Hawaii and the tropical 
Pacific (Pratt el al. 1987). which is still in print 
Irora the same publisher (second edition in 
preparation; www.hdouglaspratt.com), I am not 
an unbiased reviewer of this book, but I will strive 
lo be objective. The two books cover the same 
geographical area except that van Perlo adds New 
Zealand, This is the latest of a series of what the 
publisher calls “illustrated checklists". However, 
the first sentence of van Perlo’s preface reads 
1 his book should be regarded and treated as a 
held guide in which the necessary information, 
needed to identify a bird at the moment you 
observe it, is given in condensed form.” so 1 will 
evaluate it as a field guide. 
Coverage is said to be up-to-date as of 2009. 
but (he book includes some records that have yet 
t0 be published (Vice et al. in prep.) and misses 
others that were published well before 2009 
(Ramon and Jones 2005; VanderWerf et al. 
2(K)6. 2008). The taxonomy follows Clements 
(2007) and is not as up-to-date as the species list. 
Newell's Shearwater (Puffinus newelli) is men- 
c°ncd only in the Endnotes as a recent split from 
^lanx Shearwater ( P. puffinus), yet the book 
includes a full account for Townsend’s Shearwa- 
ler (P. auricularis ), which occurs in the region 
°nly as the subspecies I 1 , a. newelli. Species such 
a * (Western) Yellow Wagtail (Mntacilla Jlava). 
Oreat Reed Warbler (Acrocephahis arundinct- 
( t-us), Black-headed (Tricolored) Munia (Lonch- 
ura malacca), and Black-tailed (Grey) Waxbill 
Ihstrildu perreini) that have never been reported 
l,r established in the region are included appar¬ 
ently because of confusion with other included 
S pecies: respectively Eastern Yellow Wagtail 
(V. tschutschensis); Oriental Reed Warbler (A. 
orietualis)’. Chestnut (Black-headed) Munia 
(L. atricapilla); and Black-ramped Waxbill (E. 
troglodytes). |For clarity, the previous sentence 
uses van Perlo's English names (from Clements 
2007) with alternatives from Gill and Donsker 
(2011) in parentheses. 1 
The Introduction includes a cogent description 
of plate tectonics and island formation, and rather 
broad overviews ol island habitats and the 
regional avifauna. The last begins with a brief 
discussion of how island avifaunas form, a short 
paragraph ahout island extinctions, and a rather 
arbitrary listing of some of the phenomena 
demonstrated by island birds. It says little about 
historical causes of island extinctions, ongoing 
conservation problems, endangered species, or 
potential new threats to island birds. A series 
of maps of the main island groups, with bird- 
significant islands numbered for cross-referencing, 
accompany illustrations of the endemic species 
for each group (the Tinian Monarch [Monarcha 
takatsukasae) and the two megapodes [Megapodius] 
have the wrong illustrations). 
The main body of the book comprises num¬ 
bered color plates with facing-page species 
accounts. Nearly all accounts, even those for 
single-record vagrants, include tiny thumbnail 
distribution maps (some compress the entire 
tropical Pacific into 2 cm!). I found most of them 
too small to be useful, hut for widely distributed 
seabirds, shorebirds, and migratory waterfowl, 
they provide an informative regional overview. 
Accounts also include a list ol the political entities 
in which the species lives, sometimes with 
numbers for particular islands as shown in the 
Introduction. Crowding and small overall size 
would not allow direct labeling on the plates, but 
the numbers, letters, and heavy use of abbrevia¬ 
tions make for a lot of annoying cross-referencing. 
The author/illustrator defends his simplistic 
painting style with comments such as “painting 
each individual feather will give too much 
information unless the feathers form a pattern” 
and criticizes other illustrators for including too 
much detail. But even cartoonish illustrations can 
be very effective, and require no defense if well 
executed. Van Perlo’s style differs strikingly from 
my own. but succeeds for an illustrated checklist, 
if not always for field guide purposes. A few poor 
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