For the benefit of those who may wish to acquire (or give as a present) just one of the many bird books published each year, British Birds selects annually its choice of the 'Best Bird Book of the Year' from those reviewed in the journal during the previous 12 months. The winner may, in one year, be an important, erudite scientific treatise and, in another, a lighter, less academic work, but it will always be reliable, well produced and thoroughly worthy of inclusion in any birdwatcher's library.
Our choice for BEST BIRD BOOK OF 1985 is A Dictionary of Birds. Edited by Bruce Campbell and Elizabeth Lack. T. & A. D. Poyser. £39.00. (Review: Brit. Birds 78: 467-468)