20 T Hee WA Ul DIU B O Ns VB Use ey eis 
BOOK REVIEWS 
THE HABITAT GUIDE TO 
BIRDING 
by Thomas P. McElroy, Jr. 
Alfred A. Knopf, 1974 
257 pp, $8.95 
This is not so much a guide to be 
used in the field as one to be used 
in preparation for field work. The 
beginning birder soon learns to ex- 
pect certain species in certain types 
of habitat and even in certain loca- 
tions in that habitat. The author 
presents this type of approach, and 
it is indeed a good one. (Joseph 
Hickey, in “A Guide to Bird Watch- 
ing,” first brought this approach to 
the general birding public.) 
This book claims to cover the 
U.S. east of the 100th meridian, 
roughly western Nebraska. To 
check on the quality of the text, 
this reviewer concentrated on a 
familiar Illinois habitat—country 
roadsides. Included were such sur- 
prising birds as the Bald Eagle and 
Ground Dove (not designated as 
south only). The Burrowing Owl 
was listed as Florida and Louisiana 
(what about Nebraska and the 
Dakotas?). Omitted were the Red- 
tailed Hawk, Dickcissel, Field Spar- 
row, Western Meadowlark and 
Red-headed Woodpecker. It seems 
the author is not well acquainted 
with middlewestern roadsides. 
In addition to the habitat chap- 
ters the author covers songbirds in 
winter; birds at night; use of binoc- 
ulars and scopes, and some inter- 
esting “techniques afield.” The 
common names do not include the 
April, 1973, changes. 
The book is probably most valu- 
able for the beginner. Seasoned 
birders can pick up a few tips, but 
will find fault with the coverage 
for their section of the country. 
Libraries should provide this book, 
since it contains much basic infor- 
mation not concentrated in one 
source previously. 
—Peter Petersen 
FLOWERS OF GUATEMALA 
by Carol Rogers Chickering 
University of Oklahoma Press, 1973 
129 pp, $15.00 
The author visited Guatemala ten 
times and fell in love with this 
fascinating country which is about 
the size of Tennessee (42,000 square 
miles), and with an altitudinal vari- 
ance from sea level to almost 14,000 
feet, resulting in deserts to rain 
forests with an accompanying an- 
nual rainfall of from 6 to 200 inches 
and temperatures from 16 to 100 
degrees F. 
The introductory section discusses 
the twelve climate belts of Guate- 
mala with respect to climate, geo- 
graphy, altitude, species found in 
them, roads and villages with which 
the author was familiar and com- 
mercial crops. 
Since there are more than 8,000 
native species of plants in Guate- 
mala, the fifty watercolor paintings 
obviously are not enough to qualify 
this book as a field guide. The 
author has chosen fifty different 
genera and, generally, on the text 
opposite the color plate, mentions 
other species of the genus, locales 
