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If you've ever stopped to watch a wheeling flock of birds as it sets off on migration, you'll understand the authors' enthusiasm for their subject, their delight in imparting information, their ongoing curiosity and their fears for the future. For those who've never thought much about the lifecycle of birds, [Jonathan Elphick]'s book is a sure draw with its clever and eye-catching layout and use of graphics, its informative text, and superb pictures. A beautiful book. If you don't know your New Zealand birds, Andrew Crowe offers a rather expensive fold-out habitat and size guide (Penguin, $19.95). Ninety-five freshwater, seashore, countryside and garden, forest and mountain birds are illustrated, on a waterproof, tearproof poster.

At a time when foot and mouth restrictions are still blocking access to parts of the countryside, for those who want to venture further afield, it makes sense to head for one of the RSPB's nature reserves - out of the total of 150 or so, only a handful currently remain closed (ring the RSPB or consult its website for latest information; details given right). Along rocky shores, seabirds such as dapper, chocolate-and-white guillemots and comical, clownlike puffins still provide a stunning spectacle at their breeding colonies at reserves such as South Stack near Holyhead, Anglesey, and Bempton Cliffs, Yorkshire: the latter is the best place in England to see breeding seabirds - over 200,000 of them, including spectacular gannets. Equally exciting, birds of prey are busy feeding their young. It is possible to enjoy stunning views of red kites in central Wales at the RSPB's Ynys-Hir reserve, Carmarthenshire; birds from the reintroduced population can be seen at Aston Rowant National Nature Reserve, Stokenchurch, Oxfordshire, or at North Kessock Tourist Information Centre, near Inverness. Binoculars (referred to by most birdwatchers as \"bins\") are a must if you are to see birds properly, but don't be tempted by your nearest high-street shop or bargain mail-order adverts - the models they sell are rarely of good enough quality for birdwatching. Look in one of the birdwatching magazines for a specialist dealer near you, and pay dealers a visit so you can try out different models to make sure you are happy with them. Failing that, there is always mail- order (talk to knowledgeable birdwatching friends first).

Marschall reviews Birds: The Art of Ornithology by Jonathan Elphick.

Mammal follows on from DK's Animal and Earth and has just about every conceivable fact you might wish to know about mammalia, everything that anyone with an interest in the subject, from zoologists to pupils to enthusiasts, would want, presented in easily digestible, simple-to-understand language. An eight-page opening chapter, What is a mammal?, is followed by relatively brief presentations on the role of mankind and a useful mammal classification table.

Gauthreaux reviews THE ATLAS OF BIRD MIGRATION: TRACING THE GREAT JOURNEYS OF THE WORLD'S BIRDS edited by Jonathan Elphick and foreword by Thomas E. Lovejoy.

Science Art From Cave Walls to Computer Screens (Yale University Press, July 2008), Darryl Wheye, a California artist, and Donald Kennedy, an ecologist and emeritus president of Stanford, take a close look at humanity's relationship with birds. Ms. Wheye and Dr. Kennedy, also the former editor of the journal Science, have collected bird art ranging from the cave painting of an owl to a portrait of the ivory-billed woodpecker, which appeared on the cover of Science in 2005 to accompany a report, much criticized since, that an ivorybill had been observed in an Arkansas swamp and that the species was not extinct after all.

The \"world of birds\" is a pretty big topic. This book's treatment of the subject, as expected, was somewhat superficial, but this reviewer was also pleasantly surprised about the content. The volume is organized into ten chapters, the first nine presenting reasonably in-depth discussions of a broad spectrum of avian biology topics.

The second half of the book is devoted to the grouping of the more than 10,000 bird species into related families and then into 32 orders. Special characteristics of each of these orders are discussed, with examples from some of the species within the families making up that order.

Characterizing any book that claims to be a \"complete guide\" to anything is always difficult. However, as the reviewer perused through the works pages, a more appropriate subtitle escaped him. Well-published ornithological author [Elphick] has produced a compendium of what any bird trivia expert would ever want to know about feathered creatures. The presented information is hardly novel and is available in various ornithology textbooks and other bird-oriented books that are generally available.

45-0603 QL698 Can. CIP The Atlas of bird migration: tracing the great journeys of the world's birds, ed. by Jonathan Elphick. Firefly Books, 2007. 176pbibl index ISBN 1554072484, $35.00; ISBN 9781554072484, $35.00