WOODPECKERS OF EUROPE: A STUDY OF THE EUROPEAN PICIDAE By Gerard Gorman, illustrated by Szabolcs KСѓkay. Bruce Coleman Ltd, Chalfont St Peter, 2004. 192 pages, 10 colour plates, numerous line-drawings, colour distribution maps. ISBN 1-872842-05-4. Hardback, £35.00. Europe's woodpeckers are an attractive bunch, and this portable and well-produced volume will increase your awareness of this frequently neglected group. Covering the continent's ten breeding species, and sensibly excluding vagrants such as Yellow-bellied Sapsucker Sphyrapicus varius, this book will appeal to anyone wanting an insight into the lives of these engaging, but sometimes elusive creatures. The book is divided into three parts, of which the first `Systematics, structure and natural history' and last `Woodpeckers and the wider world' provide brief but necessary contexts for the middle and longest section. This section contains the individual species accounts, preceded by a block of coloured plates and distribution maps. Gerard Gorman is clearly a woodpecker enthusiast and, by deftly weaving various published and unpublished sources with his own opinions and eastern European experience, he has produced a text that is both interesting and informative. I was, for example, fascinated to learn that a Grey-headed Woodpecker Picus canus had been witnessed foraging on a limestone cliff face in a manner recalling Wallcreeper Tichodroma muraria. The individual species accounts cover not only expected themes such as plumages, habitat preferences, nest-sites, feeding habits and population trends, but also include helpful discussions on hybrids (a topic mostly neglected in ornithological literature), and signs. This last subject is of more