Birds: Their Life, Their Ways, Their World

Pleasantville, New York, U.S.A.: Readers Digest Association, Inc., 1991. 8th Printing . Hard Back. Near Fine/Good. 8 3/4" x 11. Cameron, Ad. 411 Pages Plus Index. February 1991 Edition. Dust jacket has some edge wear, chipping and some tears up to two inches. Interior is faultless. Illustrates and discusses more than 176 Bird Families that have lived on earth. There are more than 1000 spectacular color painting by nature artist Ad Cameron depicting such scenes as aerial combat between golden eagles, cranes performing a wild courtship dance and cuckoos evicting sparrows from the nest. Birds is actually two books in one. It begin with a comprehensive description of the diverse lives of birds. In the chapter on Feeding you'll discover how bee-eathers excape being stung by their prey, what finicky creatures feed exclusively on snails, how many fish a puffin can carry away in its beak. Breeding introduces you to the amazingly large variety of nexts and patterns of parental care. Migraiton gives you up-to-date information on the intricated navigation techniques of long-distance fliers, including some that travel 18,000 miles in a year. Other chapters provide insights into the anatomy of birds (their feathers can weigh twice as much as their bones), social behaviour, and the drastic ups and downs of bird numbers. In the second part you'll meet all 176 bird families that have ever lived on earth, including the kingfishers, the kiwis, the nuthatches, the mousebirds, and 172 over families which are covered in intriguing depth and detail. Large heavy book that will require special packing and may incur additional shipping charges to some locations.