[book review]
Nature's Music: The Science of Birdsong
Peter Marler and Hans Slabbekoorn, Eds.
Review by Bernard Lohr
Science, Vol 307, Issue 5716, 1723-1724, 18 March 2005
First paragraph of review:
Describing and deciphering the enormous variety and complexity of sounds that
birds produce was Luis Felipe Baptista's lifelong passion. Sadly, Baptista, the
curator of ornithology at the California Academy of Sciences, passed away in
June of 2000, leaving the field without his keen enthusiasm and broad-ranging
expertise. He was widely admired for his prolific research record, which
included important contributions to the fields of song learning, conservation
bioacoustics, and the parallels between birdsong and music. He also possessed a
well-known desire to bring the sometimes arcane and highly technical arena of
birdsong biology to a more general audience. After his untimely death, a large
group of his many colleagues and friends convened a conference in his honor.
Nature's Music: The Science of Birdsong grew out of that symposium.
|