ORNITHOLOGICAL LITERATURE 
425 
widespread, with only half-page or even quarter- 
page spreads, extends also to Rock (Lagopus 
nuiw) and Willow (L lagopus) ptarmigan. Quarter 
pages for Ross's ( Rhodostethia rosea) and Ivory 
(Pagophila eburnea ) gulls represent their relative 
rarity even in eastern Canada, but 1 would still like 
to have seen larger images of these beautiful 
birds. Interestingly. Northern Goshawk (Accipiter 
gentilis), a species likely to be seen less frequently 
by eastern Canadian birders than a Boreal 
Chickadee, is given a full page. 
The use of banding codes to label the plates, 
and within the body of the text, is potentially 
contusing to all users who are not already 
intimately familiar with them. As a bander myself. 
I confess to not being particularly familiar with 
the codes for species that I have never banded and 
do not see very often in the Great Lakes (seabirds 
for example), so even banders will have to study 
up! One code is already out of dale with the AOU 
recently splitting Common Gallinule from Com¬ 
mon Moorhen (Chesser et al. 2011; Auk 128: 600- 
613); and updates to these codes by the Bird 
Banding Laboratory have tended to lag behind the 
pace of AOU changes making any ‘official’ 
updates more complicated. 
The core audience for this guide might be 
"anyone in between”. The wealth of information 
and dizzying array of excellent photos could 
overwhelm a beginner, but may provide ample 
stimulus to those wanting to learn more once they 
get the basics of identification down. The incon¬ 
sistencies of presentation for some difficult iden¬ 
tification challenges may leave some "experts” 
wanting. It is difficult to pinpoint what an "in 
between” birder might find helpful as everyone 
approaches birding in a different way with favorite 
species groups ranging across the spectrum. This 
guide's presentation of shore bird plumages is sure 
to provide much of interest to those who decide 
they want to transition from "beginner” to start to 
understand the identification of these birds. Fall 
warbler plumages are also treated quite well, and 
the text for the warblers is on the whole very useful 
and instructive. Some minor disappointments could 
arise when working to distinguish a rarity from a 
more common species. One example is the Black- 
headed Grosbeak ( Pheurticus nielcutocephalus), 
which is most often recorded in the East during 
late fall and winter, yet none is shown in this 
plumage to allow the more advanced or interme¬ 
diate birder to compare with Rose-breasted Gros¬ 
beak (P. ludovicianus). 
The introduction notes that "expanded captions 
for many of these plates” can be found on the 
internet (www.crossleybirds.com). which pro¬ 
vides the author "the opportunity ... to include 
additional identification information”. Navigating 
to this web site, one first secs a considerable 
amount of advertising for the book, testimonials, 
several videos, and interviews with the author. 
Using the technique of guesswork. I found these 
plates under the main menu title 'books’, and 
clicking on the selection ‘The Crossley ID Guide 
- Eastern Birds’. I later discovered that clicking 
on the red graphic ‘IPAGES’. which suggests 
these pages are interactive (they are not), takes 
you to the same page. This page contains 45 
plates, plus the cover with added pop-up style 
added text on the plates but not the cover. This 
docs not really meet my definition of "many”, 
but it is understandable that a balance is needed so 
the entire book is not posted on-line. The 14 pages 
of the book’s introduction are provided on the 
main page as a downloadable PDF file. 
There is a bias to non-passerines in this 
selection of plates, as only eight are of passerines, 
and 18 do not have any additional text provided as 
of January 2012. This is not a browser issue as 
there is no text on these plates when viewed with 
Microsoft™ Internet Explorer and with Mozilla 
Firefox™. Hopefully, some text will be added to 
these plates in the near future, otherwise one 
wonders why they are included. The additional 
text provided is quite variable, from comments on 
how the photo-plates were put together, rationale 
for why some things were done the way they 
were, details about the background location, 
aspects of taxonomy, and hints about birding 
techniques in general. There is additional helpful 
information on some of these plates that touches 
on topics more detailed than typically discussed in 
a field guide, including aspects that are still not 
yet worked out about assigning age or sex of 
certain species, or details of molt progression. 
The urge for some readers to search for errors is 
irresistible with several to many individuals of the 
same species on each page. Almost immediately, 
blog reviewers participating in a bird version of 
"Where’s Waldo?” found a hen Mallard (Anas 
platyrhynehos) with ducklings erroneously placed 
on the Cinnamon Teal (A. cyattoprera) page. A 
few other errors have been found, but surprisingly 
few considering how many images are presented. 
These corrections are being posted on-line (www. 
crossleybooks.com/comments-corrections/). This 
