Bookshelf

Natural History, Dec, 1998

Neotropical Rainforest Mammals By Louise H. Emmons (University of Chicago Press, 1997; $25.95; illus.)

Sounds of Neotropical Rainforest Mammals: An Audio Field Guide By Louise H. Emmons, Bret M. Whitney and David L. Rodd Jr. (Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, distributed by University of Chicago Press, 1997; $24.95)

Compact disk recordings introduce the listener to the remarkable range of sounds of neotropical rainforest mammals, from the plaintive keening of the bush dog to the guttural, rumbling growl of the jaguar. Following along in the updated field guide, you experience the next best thing to being in the Central and South American rainforests.

Sounds of North American Frogs: The Biological Significance of Voice in Frogs By Charles M. Bogert (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, 1998; $14)

Between 1954 and 1957, pioneering herpetologist Bogert journeyed across America to record the sounds on North American frogs. The mating calls, warning chirps and croaks, breeding choruses, and individual barks of fifty-seven species are interspersed among Bogert's verbal explanations. Today, when frog and toad populations are in rapid decline, this recording reminds us of the diversity of species and music we are in danger of losing.

Pueblo Artists: Portraits By Toba Pato Tucker (Museum of New Mexico Press, 1998; $55; illus.)

During a several-year sojourn in the Southwest, Pato Tucker photographed painters, sculptors, silversmiths, drum makers, and potters from nineteen pueblos in New Mexico and Arizona, where Pueblo visual traditions are continually evolving and being redefined. The resulting portraits show the artists, both individuals and families, alongside their own works of traditional and contemporary art.

Noah's Flood: The New Scientific Discoveries about the Event That Changed History By William Ryan and Walter Pitman (Simon and Schuster, 1999; $25; illus.)

Ryan and Pitman, geophysicist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, have pieced together compelling evidence that the great flood of the Bible was an actual historical event. They demonstrate how the rising Mediterranean broke through a natural dam in the Bosporus Strait, flooding a freshwater lake and expanding it into the Black Sea.

Blood: An Epic History of Medicine and Commerce By Douglas Starr (Alfred A. Knopf, 1998; $27.50)

Science writer and investigative reporter Starra traces the cultural history of blood from its role as a magical substance to its modern status as a component of human anatomy capable of being isolated, studied, and even commercially synthesized.

The Life of Birds By David Attenborough (Princeton University Press, 1998; $29.95; illus.)

In this richly illustrated book (the companion to a ten-part series to air on PBS in 1999), naturalist, writer, and filmmaker David Attenborough describes his travels in search of answers to such questions as why birds sing and why birds have colonized the globe more effectively than any other vertebrate. He also investigates the human threat to birds and the ways in which many species have already been driven to extinction.

The Second Brain By Michael Gershon (HarperCollins Publishers, 1998; $24; illus.)

Gershon, a professor of anatomy and cell biology at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, chronicles discoveries about the body's other brain--the less-known but vitally important enteric nervous responsible for "gut feelings." Too bad there's no index.

The books and compact disks mentioned in "Natural Selections" are usually available from the Museum Shop of the American of Natural History, (212) 769-5150.