The Pocket Guide to British Birds. By R. S. R. Fitter. Illustrated by R. A. Richardson, xvi and 240 pages, 1/2 plates (64 in colour). (Collins, 1952). ais. This is a disappointing book. It is original and ambitious, and a first impression is that there is some justification in the words of the publisher's blurb: "here at last is the book to make bird identification easy", but on examination it fails to fulfil this early promise--attempts at great simplification have resulted only in complication, certain of the fundamental ideas upon which the lay-out of the book is based are open to considerable criticism and, finally, there are a number of surprising errors not only in the text but also in the plates. The birds that have been recorded in Britain more than 50 times are included in three groups--Land, Waterside and Water--and within each of these habitat-categories are arranged in ascending order of size, being further grouped under the headings "Very short", "Short", "Medium short", "Medium", "Medium long", "Long", "Very long" and " H u g e " , each size having a type bird. Where the species is to be found in more than one o f the main habitats, or where the sexes differ significantly in size, there is an adequate system of cross-references. The idea of this lay-out is based upon a very doubtfully tenable belief that size is a far easier basis for the beginner to work on than the relationships upon which the more usual
Volume:
Issue 6
