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BOOK REVIEWS 
A GATHERING OF SHORE BirDs, by Henry Marion Hall. Edited by Roland C. 
Clement, with illustrations by John Henry Dick. The Devin-Adair Co., 
23 E. 26th Street, New York 10, N.Y. January, 1961. 242 pp., 95 illus- 
trations. $10.00. 
Three highly qualified contributors have combined their talents to produce 
a readable and informative text on the American shore birds. Dr. Henry 
Hall provides outstanding word pictures of sandpipers and plovers along 
beaches and marshes, drawing on a long lifetime of careful observation. 
Roland Clement, a staff member of the National Audubon Society, supplies 
the ornithological data on shore bird families, migration, field marks, range, 
and behavior. John Henry Dick’s reputation as a superb bird artist has 
been fully documented in The Warblers of America (1958). His line draw- 
ings in the present volume are excellent. We would have preferred the ad- 
dition of several color plates to the text, although the size of the book — 
744” x 10%” — precludes its use as a field guide. 
Since the general theme for the Annual Meeting of the I. A. S. this year 
will be “Shore Birds,” this book should be of exceptional interest to our 
members. The 57 species of shore birds breeding in North America and 
Central America are covered in separate articles, each illustrated with fine- 
ly detailed line drawings. Other sections describe ‘South American Shore 
Birds,” “American Shore Birds in Europe,” “European Shore Birds in 
America,” and “Siberian Shore Birds in America.” There is a helpful bib- 
liography and an index; the terminology follows the latest A. O. U. Check- 
list. It has often been said that the shore birds are the most difficult of all 
bird groups to study in the field. Here we have a book that simplifies a 
complex subject and provides delightful reading without departure from its 
scientific purpose. 
Paul H. Lobik, 22W681 Tamarack Drive, Glen Ellyn, IIl. 
ft ft ft 
THE WASTE MAKERS, by Vance Packard. David McKay Co., Inc., New York 
City. 1960, 340 pp. $4.50. 
Conservation of natural resources involves far more than providing ade- 
quate camping facilities, wildlife sanctuaries, a public park for week-end 
recreation, and sloughs where wild birds may be found. Here is a book well 
worth reading by those who are concerned with “conspicuous consumption”’ 
and the “planned obsolescence” that characterizes much of our society. The 
United States is consuming 50% of the world’s non-renewable resources. 
Mr. Packard makes a devastating attack on those who feel that the main 
goal of the American economy is the consumption of more and more goods. 
He adds his voice to an increasing number of critics, including many con- 
servationists, who feel that the goal of America is to provide a proper en- 
vironment for living, rather than add to our storehouse of goods. A typical 
symbol of the America of the 1960’s is a family picnic beside a polluted 
stream, near an eroded farm, with a bright new chromium-trimmed, tail- 
finned car a few feet away. We need a re-examination of our priorities, 
claims Mr. Packard. This book is the third of the author’s recent studies 
on American society. 
Raymond Mostek, 615 Rochdale Circle, Lombard, IIl. 
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