a lens - patiently

PNG’s birds through a lens - patiently

Those who do not know or have only a slight aquaintance with the birds of Papua New Guinea will welcome this beautifully-produced book. It does not pretend to be a handbook or a field guide/but presents, with an informative text, a cameo of the birdlife of PNG’s islands which are so rich in avifauna.

Papua New Guinea, with a land mass only a fraction that of Australia, boasts almost a hundred species more birds, including such avian celebrities as the birds of paradise. Of this family there are a number of

outstanding photographs,

including several plates of the Raggiana which must be some of the best ever taken of this bird.

But it is not only in its photographs that the book excels. All the illustrations show the work

of a talented and patient pho tographer. As with a number of the country’s species, there is no regular nesting season. Any bird photographer will ap predate the time and devotion required to photograph a bird when it is not possible to adopt the tried method of setting up a hide at a nest, If this sounds too adulatory, it could be that the reviewer’s

practical experience of Papua

New Guinea birds, having, been gained during a brief visit some years ago following somewhat cursory observations during war service, does not qualify him to comment on any shortcomings that may be ap parent to the expert. However it is to be remembered that the greater readership of this book will be among those outside the islands, with knowledge similar to or less than my own. It will

present to them a fine picture of all the birds Brian Coates has chosen to portray and it will stimulate an interest in people who may be only casual birdwatchers.

The book often touches on the rather sombre facts about the future of these magnificent birds but does not over accentuate them. Increasing population pressures, destruc tion of habitat, and human per secution for food and ornament, has put many of the

species in jeopardy.

Perhaps this book may make some of the people who can do something to preserve these birds more conscious of the need to do this. It is to be hoped

Books

that in future it will still be possible to see in the field the birds so well portrayed in Brian Coates’ book. — J. J. FRAN CIS, New South Wales Field

Ornithologists Club.

BIRDS IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA. By Brian J. Coates, Published by Robert Brown and Associates, Port Moresby, 1977.