Upon arriving at the Denver International Airport on a recent trip a couple of large murals on the walls greatly surprised me. I now wish that I had paid more attention to them (the allure of seeing new birds propelled me quickly through the terminal), but they were paintings that seemed to celebrate biodiversity and warned us that the extinctions of the past still threaten species today. I distinctly remember two species depicted. The Resplendent Quetzal was shown as an example of a currently threatened species. This bird is possibly the one that I most want to see in the world, thus it’s no shock that I noticed it. Of course, as its name suggests, it truly is resplendent and quite hard to miss. The other bird I noticed doesn’t look anything like the quetzal. It is plainly colored in black and white, and although very different looking, not something that would stand out. As the most prominent example of a species whose fate we want the quetzal to avoid the mural showed a Great Auk.

I would wager that most beginning birders, perhaps given a little time, will come to learn of the Passenger Pigeon. They may hear about the great flocks of the bird that darkened the sky for hours. But what about the Great Auk? I daresay much fewer are familiar with this bird. And it seems this has always been the case. The author of this work sought to rectify that situation over a century ago. He presents here the sum of knowledge that was then available about this strange, but magnificent, creature.

The Great Auk is the largest known member of its family. It was sometimes known as “the Penguin”, and like that unrelated family it too had become flightless. Unfortunately, that trait helped speed along the rapid demise of the bird. Sailors along the Atlantic quickly realized that this bird was easy to catch and quite tasty. They would take great quantities of the birds from breeding colonies as food for long voyages. The rampant slaughter, along with the species’ slow reproductive rates, doomed it to extinction. The last known of its kind, a pair of birds, were killed June 3, 1844 on an island off of Iceland.

This book was written in 1885, 41 years after the bird’s extinction, and many more years after the bird was common. The author scoured all the available material that had been printed about the auk and also corresponded with those who had seen it. He was therefore able to assemble a basic life history of the bird. Basic information about the breeding, feeding, and other habits is presented. However, there were some large gaps in the knowledge of the species at the time. For instance, the auks spent the 10 months when not breeding at sea, but no one knew where. Surprisingly, from what I understand, little more is known about these enigmatic birds now than it was when this book was published.

The one-time range of the bird is given in both the text and a map. The map in this edition has been reprinted in black and white and with no reformatting. It is therefore a little difficult to interpret, but the range can be made out. Thankfully, a color map has been made available in pdf format on the publisher’s website, and it looks much better.

The majority of the book describes the existing remains of these birds along with where and how they were discovered. Bones and even mummified remains have been found in North America and Europe. Some of these appeared to have died of natural causes, but most of the bones are from birds that have been killed by man. Some bones have been found in some very ancient middens (refuse heaps), showing that mankind had been taking advantage of the resources provided by this bird for quite some time. The amount of space dedicated to this topic was a great surprise to me. There are even remarks about the value of skins, and how much they have been sold for. While this was strange and novel at first it soon got repetitive. I would imagine that casual readers would not be very interested in these details. But for those whose research or interests leans in this direction it is a virtual treasure trove of information.

The writing of the author is clear and easy to understand. The writing style is slightly different than is common today, but to me it just made the reading more enjoyable. The author, however, does quote some older sources and these can be more difficult to understand due to differences in language and grammar.

Those with a casual interest in this bird would probably be better off reading a more modern treatment, such as the one contained within Hope Is the Thing with Feathers by Christopher Cokinos (which is very highly recommended). But this monograph is absolutely necessary for anyone who wants to know everything about this bird, or who just wants to experience it through a source closer in time to the bird itself.

The volume reviewed has been published by Coachwhip Publications, and is a reprint of the original work. You can order this book, along with other long-out-of-print natural history titles, on their website.

This still-relevant book is the Pete Dunne How-to guide of its era. The focus of this book is not identification or how to be a better birder in the manner that we usually think of it. Rather, it encourages you to go beyond finding and identifying birds to truly studying them and their lives. In the preface Hickey discloses that he is writing for both the novice and the veteran. In the first chapter he will tackle the problems faced by beginners and in later chapters describes “the many methods by which they can explore the mysteries of bird life.”

For those just getting started in the hobby Hickey gives tips on everything from how to remember bird songs to picking out optics. Fundamentally everything covered here still applies today, but naturally many of the details are a little out of date. But that’s not too surprising for a 60+ year old book. For beginning birders today I would recommend a more modern treatment because they may not be able to filter out the out-of-date from the still-applicable information.

The remainder of the book explores activities that birders can partake in that will further the knowledge of bird life. Included are migration studies, hawk watches, bird censuses, studies in distribution, and banding. Hickey points out many gaps in the knowledge of even the most common birds, and he urges birders and bird clubs to help fill in those gaps. For instance, what are the feeding territory sizes of different species? At what heights do different birds sing? Some of these questions, for at least some species, have surely been answered by now. But there are many that have not. Bird study such as this is not solely the realm of professional ornithologists and grad students. Amateur birders and groups can still contribute much to science.

For bird book fanatics the appendix “An Annotated List of Bird Books” is a treasure. The author lists and comments on dozens of the various books available at the time, from field guides to biology to conservation. Some books and information that were NOT available was just as interesting as what was. For example, at that time there was no comprehensive checklist for the state of Georgia.

Although the book definitely shows its age it is still very informative. There is a ton of information and many great anecdotes by the author. Additionally, it was fascinating to compare the advice and information against modern literature. Much has changed, but an amazing amount remains the same.

The main theme of the book is still relevant today, probably even more so than when it was written. There is a great temptation to focus more on lists and rarities than on the birds themselves. I know that I myself can be guilty of that. Hickey summarizes:

Birds are scanned, but it scarcely can be said that they are watched-especially when one has an eye incessantly searching for a rarity in the next tree.
Bird watching is much more than this. It is the art of discovering how birds live. Through it the naturalist can cross the frontier of knowledge and explore an unknown world. His reward is more than a mere check on a field card; although personal and intimate, it can still be a contribution to science.

That simple reminder and challenge makes this book well worthwhile.

(I just want to make it clear that I don’t think lists and rarity chasing (twitching) are bad things. It’s just that there is more to birding than those aspects alone.)