Extinct Birds (Poyser Monographs) - Hardcover

Hume, Julian P.; Walters, Michael

4.21

14 ratings by Goodreads

9781408157251: Extinct Birds (Poyser Monographs)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 140815725X ISBN 13: 9781408157251

Publisher: T & AD Poyser, 2012

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This is the first comprehensive review of the hundreds of bird species and subspecies that have become extinct over the last 1,000 years of habitat degradation, over-hunting and rat introduction. Covering both familiar icons of extinction as well as more obscure birds, some known from just one specimen or from traveller's tales, the book also looks at hundreds of species from the subfossil record - birds that disappeared without ever being recorded. Julian Hume and Michael Walters recreate these lost birds in stunning detail, bringing together an up to date review of the literature for every species. From Great Auks, Carolina Parakeets and Dodos to the amazing yet completely vanished bird radiations of Hawaii and New Zealand, via rafts of extinctions in the Pacific and elsewhere, this book is both a sumptuous reference and an amazing testament to humanity's impact on birds.

A direct replacement for Greenway's seminal 1958 title Extinct and Vanishing Birds, this book will be the standard reference on the subject for generations to come.

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About the Author:

Julian P. Hume is an author and artist at the Natural History Museum in Tring, UK, with a long record of describing species new to science. An expert on the extinct birds of the Indian Ocean, he has dug for Dodos on Mauritius, searched for flightless pigeons on the Comoros, and undertaken many other research expeditions around the world. Now retired, Michael Walters is the former curator of the egg collections at Tring.

Review:

"Consistently enthralling, addictive reading." - Birding World

"a superb work of ornithological scholarship which will surely become the standard point of first reference for years to come." - British Birds

"This wellproduced new book claims to be the first fully comprehensive treatment of the subject ever undertaken, and will surely be the standard reference for generations to come... It is truly fascinating and I highly recommend it." - Scottish Birds

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