One of the living

"Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 7: Jacamars to Woodpeckers" is the full title of this gigantic, 600-page book. Its part of a 16-volume series covering all living species of birds. This particular volume covers Jacamars, Puffbirds, Barbets, Toucans, Honeyguides and Woodpeckers. Just in case, it even includes a detailed description of the legendary Ivory-Billed Woodpecker - in the section on still living birds.

The most interesting part of this volume, however, is a specially-written chapter on extinct birds by Errol Fuller. Apart from the iconic extinct species (Dodo, Passenger Pigeon, Great Auk and so on), it includes information on a lot of lesser known extinction tragedies. Thus, we meet the almost flightless Spectacled Cormorant which used to live on Bering Island and adjacent areas in the Arctic. It met the same fate as the Dodo - it was good for the pot. A similar destiny affected the White Gallinule, a large flightless rail at Lord Howe Island.

Fuller also tells the bizarre story of the Stephen Wren, a miniscule flightless passerine endemic to Stephen Island. According to legend, this species was so rare that it was exterminated by one single creature - the lighthouse keeper's cat. The keeper was named Mr. Lyell, but Fuller doesn't mention that the cat's name was Tibbles. According to Wikipedia, however, new research (published just two years after Fuller's article in this volume) shows this story to be an over-exaggeration. The wren was indeed driven to extinction by cats, but rapacious Tibbles wasn't the sole culprit. Well, good to get that cleared out!

On a more serious note, although I'm not an animal rights activists, I nevertheless consider extinctions to be somehow unworthy of our human dignity. As Aldo Leopold put it: The difference between the passenger pigeon and man, is that man can mourn the passing of the pigeon, while the pigeon would hardly notice the passing of man! Hopefully, the Ivory-billed Woodpecker will one day turn out to be one of the living species. It would have an obvious symbolic significance...

Fuller also mentions a number of extremely rare birds, so rare that we hardly know anything about them - except that they are probably long gone. The Bay Thrush is known only from a painting by Georg Forster. It used to live at the Pacific island of Raiatea. The Mystery Double-banded Argus is known only from a single feather found at an unknown location at some time before 1871. Something tells me finding this bird would be even more difficult than spotting an Ivory-billed Woodpecker! A tip: try Indochina or Indonesia. Its closest living relatives thrive there. Further, there is the Rodrigues Night-heron, an aggressive heron harassing Huguenot refugees who made a temporary landfall at this distant island. Finally, there is the White Dodo and Leguat's Giant, the first probably being an artistic fantasy (Fuller's arguments on this point are quite clever), while the second may have been a stray flamingo.

As you might have imagined, I considered Errol Fuller's article to be the most interesting section of this volume. But sure, if jacamars or woodpeckers are more to your liking, don't you worry, you'll get your treat! Each volume of the HBW is literally stashed with scientific information on every described species, including extensive introductory chapters on each family. The whole thing is topped off by excellent color plates and a lot of full-color photos. However, this series isn't really intended for the general reader, which is why I found the chapter on extinct birds so interesting. It was written in a more popularized style, quite unlike the rest of this work. HBW is primarily intended for the scientific reference or research library.

That being said, I nevertheless award this volume the customary five stars.