Subject: NGS bird guide
Date: Dec 5 11:08:06 1995
From: Christopher Hill - cehill at u.washington.edu
On Tue, 5 Dec 1995, Don Baccus wrote:
>
> Don't forget that the illustrations in this guide were painted by
> several people, with varying accuracy IMHO.
>
Well, at least they replaced the illustrations of the cuckoos in the
second edition. In the first edition, they suggested an alternate family
name, "Boomerangidae." The Black and White warbler with dropsy is still
in, as are the microcephalic Accipiters and the horrid Least Flycatcher.
The funny thing, as far as Don't comment goes, is that some of the worst
offenses are by artists who did fine illustrations elsewhere in the
book. From what little I know about publishing, I get the feeling that
the word "deadline" might have something to do with the explanation.
As someone else pointed out, though, it's still the best, most complete
guide out there. Its strength is in all the different plumages it
illustrates. Its weakness is that the poses are not always as lifelike
as in, e.g. Peterson. I can live with it on balance. There are few real
errors that I notice. The soft part colors on immature terns are wrong,
but that probably doesn't matter to most people (I spent several summers
working on terns, so it jumps out at me when black legs turn bright orange.
Chris Hill
Everett, WA
cehill at u.washington.edu