Jack Bowling wrote:
>
I do not have that CD, but I remember the old original LP of the
Peterson song guide. It's one big failing was that it did not
tell anyone *when* the song was recorded, just the location. This
decreases the utility of the recording several billion fold for
those locations where several races of migratory species comingle
at certain seasons. Has the CD documentation improved in this
respect?

- Jack <

No, the CDs aren't any more helpful in this regard.

It dawned on me recently, that a recording of a bird's song,
no matter how clear and complete, is sort of the auditory
equivalent of a photograph. Learning a species by its
song from a recording is like learning its appearance
from a photograph - depending on the light conditions,
the type of film used, the angle from which the picture
was taken, and the possibly non-typical appearance
of the individual bird being photographed, one could
get a really skewed idea of what the species looks like.

At least with photographs, there are usually several
sources to compare. Not so many with song recordings -
usually they all track back to whatever Cornell's
Library of Natural Sounds considers it's best sample.

So - listeners be aware.

Chris Maack
Anchorage, AK
CMaack at compuserve.com