iti eps sAU DU B.O N AB GoLeLVEi Trl oN 23 
BOOK REVIEWS 
BIRDS OF NEW YORK STATE 
By John Bull 
Doubleday Natural History Press, 
Garden City, N.Y., 
Illustrated, 655p., $29.95 
A virtual encyclopedia of birds 
of the area, this exceptional vol- 
ume examines 410 species found in 
New York state. A vast amount of 
research from banding data to mu- 
seum data, plus his own field work 
of four decades, has resulted in an 
extensive study. 
An excellent color-end topogra- 
phic map of the state enhances the 
book. There are over 160 breeding 
and recovery maps, plus many bird 
photographs. 
The notes make fascinating read- 
ing even for those not a resident 
of the state. For example, there 
were no records of the Snowy 
Egret nesting in the state of New 
York from 1885 until 1949. It was 
53 years before the Blue-Gray 
Gnatcatcher was reported to have 
nested again—a period from 1890 
to 1943. 
Like many others, Bull calls for 
more bird-watching recorders, ask- 
ing for more observers off the Long 
Island coast. Sound familiar? 
New York state, the second most 
populous state in the Union, is 
25th in size, and varies in geog- 
raphy considerably. It contains the 
5,000 foot peaks of the Adiron- 
dacks, and one of the most majestic 
rivers in the country—the Hudson. 
It is blessed with the famed Five 
Fingers Lakes area; it is bordered 
on the west by Lake Erie, on the 
northwest by Lake Ontario, and 
Long Island stretches its fingers 
out into the Atlantic Ocean. All 
this offers an environmental delight 
to the bird-watcher and traveler. 
Under the Species Account, the 
reader is given the Range, Band- 
ing, Breeding and Status of each 
species. Some birds which have 
been sighted only once are noted. 
Bull’s work is valuable for it suc- 
ceeds Eaton’s studies of 1914 and 
shows an increase of 44 species. 
—Raymond Mostek 
AMERICAN BIRDS 
By Roland C. Clement 
Grosset and Dunlop, New York 
1973 — 159 p., 118 color photos 
$2.95 
An introductory book featuring 
some fine photographs, one of the 
World of Knowledge Series. It is 
in no way a field guide, covering 
only the 118 species illustrated 
with a few notes on the orders 
they represent. The introduction 
touches on why people study birds, 
groupings, names, the variety of 
birds, adaptations, guidelines to 
birding, where to look for birds 
and life zones. The birds selected 
are chiefly common, but some of 
the photographs look like mounted 
specimens. 
Those interested in other as- 
pects of natural history should 
examine other volumes in this 
series, all of the same length and 
price of the bird book. They in- 
clude FLOWERS OF THE WORLD 
and TREES OF THE WORLD by 
Sandra Holmes, and ROCKS AND 
MINERALS by Joel Arem, perhaps 
the best inexpensive rock and min- 
eral book to come to my attention. 
— Peter C. Petersen 
