birding-aus

Slater v2 comments

To: "birding-aus" <>
Subject: Slater v2 comments
From: "Trevor Ford" <>
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 2009 11:40:32 +1000
G'day,

I also admire most of Peter Slater's paintings - I own a few. But I'm not too 
sure whether the size of a field guide should be the most significant factor 
when assessing its worth or, indeed, whether there might be a Red Bishop on the 
cover or a Blackbird in the text. When I arrived in Australia, I spent an hour 
or two with a knowledgeable friend and a pencil, correcting and enhancing my 
Slater, and this proved to be a very wise and useful thing to have done.

Ever since then I've looked at subsequent reprints and editions to see how 
things have or have not evolved. So, in my local bookshop last weekend, I 
turned the pages of this attractive guide to see what has happened to the 
illustration of Black Currawong. This is always my first port of call. And 
there it was, still with enormous white wing patches. Does anyone ever see them 
like this? All the Black Currawongs that I've seen look much like the 
illustration in Pizzey & Knight.

I then turned to the waders. I'm reasonably familiar with waders and find that 
if they hit the spot with regard to how they're depicted, I'm usually 
comfortable with the book as a whole. But I was completely distracted by the 
fact that
they are now scattered all over the place. I can't remember exact details but 
if you like your species to be ordered taxonomically, as I do, this is a daft 
approach and would annoy me far too much for me to contemplate buying a copy. 
For instance, there are something like 30 pages of ducks, ibises and other 
stuff in between stints and stilts.

I put the book back on the shelf. My thoughts are now:

1. Was I suffering from a really good Friday night and seeing double?

2. Is there yet another taxonomy lurking out there that I'm unaware of?

3. Is the old approach of grouping "medium-size, brown birds that live near 
water" coming back into vogue?

BTW - Thanks for all the kind comments about the wader info on my website 
(www.sunbittern.com).

Cheers - Trevor.

Trevor Ford

==============================www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com

To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to: 
=============================
<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
  • Slater v2 comments, Trevor Ford <=
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the birding-aus mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU