32 T HUE’, A\UD-U-B OTN BU i i Eire 
North American Birds by Bent; Chapman’s Handbook of Birds; the two- 
volume Audubon and His Journals; books on wild flowers, trees, ferns, 
mammals. 
This latest edition is printed, folded and bound in signatures, sewn 
together as are the hard-bound books; the binding les flat and does not 
split; it should make a fine addition to one’s bird library. Unfortunately, 
the many halftones are not as sharp as in the original, although they serve. 
In my college days, the late William Beebe was one of the most popular 
and widely read of all American naturalists. He was both scientist and 
impresario; he was a serious curator of ornithology and a source of news- 
paper headlines. His four-volume Monograph of the Pheasants, an outgrowth 
of field studies in the Himalayas, is a landmark of scholarly technique. Yet 
Dr. Beebe’s enthusiastic, easy-going, narrative style made even his scientific 
reports pleasant and enjoyable reading. 
About 35 years ago, Dr. Beebe’s books flirted with the best-seller lists. 
His expeditions to Dutch Guiana, Burma, the Galapagos, and the depths 
of the sea made exciting reading. When his bathysphere plunged to 3,027 
feet, I scraped together nickels and dimes (hard to come by in the depres- 
sion) to buy the issues of The National Geographic that vividly portrayed 
his findings. 
Even after the passage of sixty years, much of the data in THE BIRD 
is useful, important and valid. This book provides a broad introduction to 
birds as a form of life; it makes bird history and physiology palatable and 
intriguing. Dr. Beebe interrelated the paleontological record of bird de- 
velopment with the life cycles of modern birds. 
He closely studied the most primitive birds at first hand in many 
corners of the world; he analyzed the evolution of birds from their reptilian 
ancestors; he compared the anatomies of many living species; thus armed, 
he was able to present brilliant chapters on plumage, avian skeletons, 
functional change, adaptations to surroundings, development in and out of 
the egg, and so on. There are chapters on organs of nutrition, food, breath- 
ing apparatus, muscles, nerves, senses, skulls, beaks and bills, bodies, wings, 
feet, legs, and tails. 
But beyond mere anatomy, Beebe presented a wealth of detailed 
description of bird life in all its aspects that still seems new and refreshing. 
He touched briefly but poignantly upon the effect of encroaching human life 
on birds and the destruction, actual or threatened, of various species. Even 
now, his warnings are worth repeating: “May the naturalists of today realize 
their opportunity and do their best to preserve to us and to posterity what 
is left to us of wild life! If not, let us pity the Nature-lover of two hundred 
years hence!” 
As Dean Amadon concludes: “The amateur naturalist will find THE 
BIRD to be a mine of information. The professional biologist, too, will 
profit by reading it.” 
Paul H. Lobik, 22W681 Tamarack Drive, Glen Ellyn, Ill. 
real Fl 1; ri 
