Hi all,
Thanks Hugo Phillips and David McDonald for your responses to my comments on
the new 7th (!?)
edition of The Pizzey and KNIGHT (!) field guide.
It seems that there are some rather 'novel and creative' marketing techniques
being used here.
This latest edition is quite obviously NOT the seventh edition!
The 1980 publication was the "A Field Guide to the Birds of Australia" by
Graham Pizzey illustrated
by Roy Doyle.
No mention of Frank Knight.
The subsequent publication by Graham Pizzey and Frank Knight was quite
obviously a completely
different concept and therefore a completely different field guide.
To claim that the latest edition of that book is a version of the first Pizzey
field guide stretches
the imagination beyond belief!
And to claim that new printing runs (for the purpose of filling demand) are new
editions is also a
dubious tactic, as is claiming that the same book printed as a soft-back or
hard-back is a new
edition.
If we were to use that method, I wonder what 'edition' the first printing of
the "Slater"
pocket-sized bird field guide really was considering that there was a previous
'Slater' guide
printed in two parts?
It seems to me that there is a tactic here to encourage birders to believe that
the new "Pizzey and
Knight" is a something it is not.
Please note: I am not being critical of the authors of this field guide.
I have most of the Australian bird field guides (and several editions of each)
and the one I refer
to most is the 1997 (the first printing, signed by the authors!) edition of
"The Graham Pizzey and
Frank Knight Field Guide to the Birds of Australia".
In my opinion this was the best Australian bird field guide produced, although,
of course, it is not
perfect and it is a bit big.
(No hate mail, please. After all this is the time of good will unto all people.
:-)!
Best wishes to all and good birding for the new year.
Bob Inglis
Woody Point
Queensland
Australia
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
www.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/home/birding/index.html
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