I've just received the 6th Edition of Simpson & Day for review (it hits the
shops on the 1st November). What's new:
* apparently many parts of the text have been rewritten?obviously I haven't
had time to comb through and find which bits, but I'll take their word for
it (Painted Honeyeaters are still described as 'C' (=common!) though;
*there is a new section in the Handbook part by Dick Schodde, summarising
his views on the origin of the bird fauna, and outlining his 'ultrataxa'
scheme from his Directory;
*there's a new section on prehsitoric birds in the back;
*there are 18 new plates, some of which are very nice, soem of which aren't
so good?unfortunately of the older plates several are beginning to lose
their quality through repeated reprints;
*the maps have been completely redrawn and are now very good, showing much
more detail about the distribution and movement of the sp;
*the maps also incorporate the new subspecies ('ultrataxa') that Schodde
proposes in his Directory, so that, for example, there are no less than 12
ssp of White-browed Scrub-wren listed and their distributions shown on the
map?but most of the new ssp are not mentioned in the text or illustrated,
so only their alleged distribution is given, I suspect that this would be
very confusing for the novice birder or the first timer in Australia.
All in all it still seems very much less finished and organised than Pizzey
and Knight.
John Leonard
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
John Leonard (Dr),
PO Box 243,
Woden, ACT 2606,
Australia
http://www.spirit.net.au/~jleonard
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