I have to admire the author for bringing together a taxonomic list of 1100 birds found in the Western Palearctic (about 1 in 10 of the world’s birds) and explaining the origins of their English vernacular names and scientific names. If that is the book you want, then this is the book for you.
I liked the author’s dry humour and self-deprecation. His Preface endeared him to me as a man with a good appreciation of his subject. And later on he writes (admits?) that he would probably never have started this book had it not been for the Covid lockdowns – how they changed our lives!
This is a list of 1100 species, and here and there I found nuggets of valuable metal, not fools’ gold, which I really enjoyed. For example, have a look at the Chiffchaff and whence colybita derives. The difficulty with the book is sorting the chiff from the chaff. By its very nature you have to read every account to find the relatively few (in my case) that really interested you. Guess where the Cape Verde Warbler lives? Yes, you are right. Guess where the Tennessee Warbler lives? No, not really, except on passage. The Black-browed Albatross account interested me a lot, the Yellow-nosed Albatross account less so, but it has an amusing quip in it.
I’d suggest that every bird club in the country ought to get a copy of this book and loan it out to its members for a limited period so that it is read by many people. If each person highlighted each passage they liked then that would be an interesting exercise and a guide to the last readers of which bits to turn to first.
How many people will desperately want this book? Rather few, I think. Is it an impressive achievement – yes it is.
The cover? Yep, those are Mew Gulls, or maybe Common Gulls. One of the nicer, friendlier-looking gulls. I’d give it 8/10.
The Vanishing Mew Gull: a guide to the bird names of the Western Palearctic by Ray Reedman is published by Pelagic Publishing.
Signed copies of my most recent book book, Reflections, are available from me.
Contact me at [email protected]
Softback – £20 (incl UK P&P)
Hardback £26 (incl UK P&P)
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