Overview

We learn from an early age that nothing is quite so dead as a dodo. We've heard stories of flocks of passenger pigeons once darkening the skies over North America, only to be reduced to a single bird, Martha, who perished in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1914. Errol Fuller's illustrated ""Extinct Birds"" provides details of the natural history and fates of more than 80 species of birds now believed to be gone forever. Fuller conveys accurate scientific and historical information about the lives, times and disappearances of bird species since 1600. His species accounts are vivid reminders of what birds, precisely, the world has already lost. The physical evidence provided by preserved specimens is given narrative texture with Fuller's use of eyewitness accounts of the lives (and, in many cases, the last days) of bird species from all over the world. Nearly all the accounts in ""Extinct Birds"" are illustrated with colour plates, many by artists, including Audubon, Keulemans and Lear, who had the advantage of working from fresh specimens or even from living birds. These paintings are also primary sources of scientific knowledge. Birds for which appropriate illustrations did not already exist are shown in new paintings produced especially for this book. The revised edition of ""Extinct Birds"" includes several species - among them three from North America - not covered in the original 1987 edition. More happily, two species have been rediscovered in the intervening years and several others in danger of being declared extinct have been located again. By describing in words and pictures the beauty and diversity of those birds already lost to extinction, Fuller attempts to inspire us to do what we can to prevent future editions of ""Extinct Birds"" from drawing new chapters from the field guides of today.

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9780801439544

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Reviews

Among the species lost in just the last several hundred years are creatures ranging from the nearly fantastical and exquisite to the comical. Their pictures and histories have been collected in a newly revised book that is in itself an ode to the remarkable record on birds, the obsessively researched and beautifully illustrated Extinct Birds by Errol Fuller, an artist. Carol Kaesuk Yoon, New York Times Fuller is an artist, not an ornithologist or a writer and the physical beauty of his profusely illustrated book reflects this but there is nothing amateurish about either the science or the writing of Extinct Birds. The grasp of theory and taxonomy is secure, and the language sparkles. William Ashworth, Times Literary Supplement, January 11, 2002 Man's destructive impulses are . . . documented in Errol Fuller's work Extinct Birds. . . Well-researched. . . beautifully illustrated in colour and black and white. . . It also offers a collection of fine bird art by Audubon . . . and other important wildlife painters. Bird Watching, November 1988 The author has carried out his chosen task of historical and bibliographical research exceedingly well, in a way that will satisfy even the most critical, but he also has a way with words, and manages to breathe life into the accounts without departing from accuracy. He is also emotionally involved, angered by the senseless destruction of so many beautiful and interesting birds, and his book is none the worse for that. . . . All told, this is a first-class book, which can be most confidently recommended. J. A. Gibson. Archives of Natural History, Vol. 15, Part 3, October 1988 The illustrations are one of the chief delights of this book. Some of them are simply superb. Bill Oddie. New Scientist, December 1987 We couldn't put this book down. The life histories and eyewitness accounts of more than 80 'recently extinct' bird species were simply too engrossing. And the illustrations . . . are eerily beautiful. Birders' World, December 2001

We couldn't put this book down. The life histories and eyewitness accounts of more than 80 'recently extinct' bird species were simply too engrossing. And the illustrations . . . are eerily beautiful. Birders' World, December 2001

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