> Well, I've got my copy now and I agree with the opinion expressed last
> week
> that it represents the best all-round field guide (though I think Day
> is
> still the best bird artist).
>
This is so much in the eye of the beholder isn't it?! IMHO, Slater is
still probably the best at getting the jizz right, although the short
ration of new plates in the latest Simpson & Day show that Day has
improved in that respect. If Viking would agree to re-illustrating S&D
completely (without the clothes lines & other distracting props), it
would be a far more useful book. On the whole, the S&D plates look to
me like just so many unusually-coloured strangled chooks*, albeit not as
chronically as the Doyle plates in the first Pizzey.
One of the best things about the new Knight plates is how uncluttered
they are, and with only 2-4 spp a page, there's room for a few more
plumage variants & such (and a decent amount of text on the facing
page). This also makes it quite a serious lump of a book, but then
Slater is still a useful pocket-sized guide book (when no porter is
available to carry the new Pizzey & Knight around, or a coffee table to
put the Simpson & Day on).
I haven't gotten around to serious nitpicking yet, but I recall that I
did see a few errors. No doubt there will be a voluminous list of them
assembled prior to the next edition. It is great though, having such
good plates adjacacent to THE best text of all.
> Apart from that I'm lost in admiration, and dsire to set off
> immediately to
> see all the species I haven't seen yet.
>
Ditto on my part.
Cheers -- Lawrie
Lawrie Conole
Geelong, Victoria, Australia
http://yarra.vicnet.net.au/~birdsaus/painted.html
http://www.xnet.com/~ugeiser/Birds/TripReports/JavaBali96.html
* = Australian word for Domestic Chicken
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