Thanks, Dennis, for the head's up. On the topic of Life List books, I
recently bought a copy of the relatively new (6th Edition of the
Clement's Checklist of the Birds of the World. Having tried to make
due with the very out-dated 2nd edition for nearly 30 years, it's
been really fun to go back over old records, many splittings and new
species, and a few lumpings. The new edition includes all described
and accepted subspecies with their own check boxes and ranges
(although some of the latter are a little vague and occasionally not
entirely accurate). Anyway, the Clements book makes a great
repository for one's treasured world life list. And I found I'd never
recorded the Philadelphia Vireo I saw for the first time at Cold Lake
in NE Alberta (a GREAT spot for eastern North American birds not TOO
far from Washington) in 1982! OMG!

Mark





>Hello, tweeters.
>
>A colleague of mine, nature writer and photographer Whit Bronaugh,
>recently sent me a copy of his book and asked that I let others know
>about it. This is a book for those who might prefer to keep a life
>list as hard copy rather than on a computer. It's called Wildlife of
>North America, A Naturalist's Lifelist, published by the University
>Press of Florida. The price on the cover is $29.95. I've seen them
>at several book stores in Seattle but hadn't looked closely at a
>copy before now.
>
>The book is unusual in listing all of the mammals, birds, reptiles,
>amphibians, freshwater fishes, butterflies, and dragonflies of North
>America north of Mexico. It's a big book, plenty of room to write
>something for every species. Be the first on your block to have a
>land and freshwater VERTEBRATE life list, not to mention the two
>insect groups. Whit is a perfectionist, so he was e-mailing me right
>up to publication date to ask if there had been any changes in
>dragonfly taxonomy or common names, and I'm sure he has done the
>same for all the other groups. I know many birders are also broadly
>interested naturalists, and this seems just the book for us.
>
>Besides the list, the book has a lengthy introduction, including an
>interesting section on biodiversity and zoogeography of North
>America, with very informative maps of the number of species of each
>group in each state and province; contrasting the maps for
>butterflies and dragonflies was really instructive to me. There is
>also an appendix with recent taxonomic and nomenclatural changes. In
>this appendix, he updates the names and the taxonomy in standard
>field guides (National Geographic 4th edition for birds), with
>discussions of the reasons for the changes; you'd be surprised how
>many additional species have been recognized in recent years.
>
>He also has a section on extinction and - really neat, I thought - a
>list and description of all the animals in these groups known or
>thought to have gone extinct at the end of the Pleistocene (e.g.,
>Columbia Mammoth, Northern Sabertooth, La Brea Condor, Titan
>Terrorbird, and NA Giant Tortoise), a moment ago in the history of
>our continent. As he writes, "When you see a Turkey Vulture wheeling
>about in the sky, remember that not long ago it had to share the
>spoils of a carcass with American Lions, Dire Wolves, Giant
>Teratorns and other now extinct avian scavengers." The lists include
>these species, so - sorry - you'll never be able to fill in every
>check box. Also, alien (non-native) species are listed in separate
>lists at the end of each taxonomic group; I like the emphasis on
>native species.
>
>Anyway, this book seems like a bargain to me at $30. Even if you're
>not into listing, the introduction and appendix are unique
>contributions to an understanding of our wildlife.
>
>-----
>Dennis Paulson
>1724 NE 98 St.
>Seattle, WA 98115
>206-528-1382
><mailto:dennispaulson at comcast.net>dennispaulson at comcast.net


--
Mark Egger
Seattle, WA
USA
mailto:m.egger at comcast.net