Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan. Compact edition. By Salim Ali and S. Dillon Ripley. Oxford University Press, New Delhi & Oxford, 1983. 737 pages + 113 colour plates; numerous maps and linedrawings. £75.00.Ever since the publication of the first of the ten volumes of the Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan, in 1968, this has been the much-praised standard work on the birds of the subcontinent. The last of the ten volumes was published in 1974, only six years after the first. This review need not repeat the detailed critical analyses given by Sir Hugh Elliott and Stanley Cramp in their reviews of the individual volumes as they were published (Brit. Birds 62: 544-546; 66: 170-171; 69: 223). These ten volumes have been used so much over the past ten years or so that it is unnecessary to do other than remind readers of the excellent layout, generally good cross-referencing and usefulness of these volumes. The main problem for the ornithologist visiting these areas of the world has been the impracticability of carrying ten large volumes on air flights and, especially, on field trips. That problem is now solved. This new single volume combines the text of all of the previous ten at quarter size, and the plates of all of the previous ten at full size. So, instead of carrying ten huge volumes, one can now carry just one (it weighs just over 2½ kg).

Volume: 
Issue 1
Start Page: 
67
Authors: 
Inskipp, T
Display Image: 

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