Greetings Tweeters,

I received a copy of the new monograph _Chickadees, Tits, Nuthatches and
Treecreepers_ by Simon Harrap and David Quinn.

I have not thoroughly reviewed the text yet, but it looks as though it is
of a very high standard.

What I am most impressed with in this book is the quality of the plates.
I may be walking out on a limb here when I say this, but I'm gona say it
any way. I think that the plates in this book are perhaps the finest that
I have seen in a book of this type published in my lifetime.

The challenge with this type of illustration is the strict limitations
imposed on the illustrator. The birds must be isolated on the page,
usually on a white or neutral background, all the field marks must be
emphasized or even exaggerated, and the correct posture and structure of
the bird needs to be packed in as well. If you can meet these requirements
you have a "good' illustrator.

The illustrator that can do these things and then some, is the exception.
Many illustrators often paint a good likeness of a bird but the bird
itself is missing, and few of them can find the fine line between to
little and to much detail. Examples of these types of illustrators would
be Authur Singer, who dose to little, and Glen Loates, who dose to much.
Both make good illustrations of quite lifeless birds.

Roger Troy Peterson, Don Eckelberry, and William Copper and the godfather
of them all, the illustrator that all other illustrators are measured
against, is Louis Agassiz Fuertes. All of these people are great
examples of illustrators that go the extra mile.

To this list, I would add David Quinn. He also illustrated many of the
plates in the _Warbles of the Americas_. The illustrations in that book
are also very good.

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Russell Rogers
4510 Glenn Way SW
Seattle, WA 98116
(206) 935-6280
rrogers at halcyon.com
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