Birder's Bug Book, The

The Birder's Bug Book.-Gilbert Waldbauer. 1998. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts. 290 pp., 16 color plates, 61 figures. ISBN 0-67407461-0. Cloth, $27.95.-The alliteration in the title is pleasant, but more than one birder may wonder what a "bug book" is supposed to include. More than anything else, this book is about species interactions, as played out by various combinations of bug, bird, and human populations. Insect-bird interactions are only part of the text, and though a simplified identification key is present, it is not a naturalist's field guide. The most satisfied readers may be those birders who enjoy natural history stories and very lucid connections to the great ideas in biology. No doubt there will also be fans of Waldbauer's smooth style that can quote Robert Frost, an 11-year old grandson, or E. O. Wilson with equal panache. It is a book for curious, educated folks who may not be biologists, but might have considered a short course at a field station along the way. Subscribers to The Auk might find this book to be a good gift or a thoughtful provision in a summer guest room. By explaining myriad species connections, Waldbauer hopes to increase public appreciation for the players as well as the evolutionary play.

Readers will instantly notice a profiled bird sketched in the lower right corner of odd-numbered pages, which is cleverly animated as the corners are rolled. Sixty-one other text figures by Jim Nardi are large, purposeful, and crisply printed, and a center section features 38 color photographs that are striking but less informative. The text is mainly presented as a series of staged battles between various combinations of bugs, birds, and people. Examples are drawn from around the world; Waldbauer's dedication to a good story is repeatedly proven by his enduring swarms of mosquitoes, blackflies, and no-seeums. He recounts the interactions between Mormon crickets (Anabrus simplex), western settlers, and California Gulls (Larus californicus); insects, farmers, and Cattle Egrets (Bubulcus ibis); peppered moths (Biston betularia), industrialists, and birds; butterflies, milkweeds, and Blue Jays (Cyanocitta cristata); malaria, loggers, and the Iiwi (Vestiaria coccinea) on Hawaii, to name just a few. Along the way, we learn of European women who wore flea traps around their necks and that the number of insect families north of Mexico approximates the number of bird species (613) and therefore is learnable. There is able detailing of natural selection, the Hamilton-Zuk hypothesis, mimicry, phoresy, anting, and bioaccumulation before the author concludes with an overview of Earth's sixth mass extinction, presently driven by human action. Waldbauer's plea for reducing this damage is utilitarian and familiar to many of us but sincerely expressed. If he draws us into this book based on affinities for birds, bugs, or biology, Waldbauer's final goal is enriching our view of one seamless web of life.-WILLIAM J. EHMANN, Department of Biology, Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa 50311, USA.

Copyright American Ornithologists' Union Jul 1999
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