From Library Journal
Venerable 94-year-old Skutch, author of over 25 books (Orioles, Blackbirds, and Their Kin, LJ 3/1/96), has observed nature in the tropics for 70 years, decades before "the rainforest" became the routine high-school assignment it is now. Aside from being a first-rate naturalist, he writes well, at times philosophically, andAdangerous for a scientistAemotionally. His new book has 19 chapters on a potpourri of subjects: various hummingbirds, flycatchers, snake-eating birds, and such unusual topics as "birdlike monkeys," "the strenuous lives of migratory birds," and "the birds I love." Much of the action centers around Skutch's farm in Costa Rica. Like his other books, this one has abundant insight and unique, first-hand observations of the lives of tropical animals and plants. For academic and larger public libraries.AHenry T. Armistead, Free Lib. of Philadelphia
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Kirkus Reviews
Skutch (A Naturalist Amid Tropical Splendor, 1987, etc.) has had the chance, the curiosity, and the resolvefor over 70 yearsto observe the habits of little-known tropical birds, and the gleanings here add random, intelligent insights to our stock of avian wonder. Now 94 years old, Skutch has spent most of his life in the tropics observing animals, and for the most part birds. This collection of essays concentrates on bird behavior that runs counter to form: raptors that nurse-maid small birds of other species, birds that make their home in the nests of arboreal termites or treetop vespiaries, the hunting peculiarities of the swallow-tailed kite (it gathers insects with its feet). He covers courtship activities of long-tailed hermits and adorable coquettes, the nesting ways of snowy-breast, beryl-crown, and violet-headed hummingbirds, and birdsong (his wife once heard a grayish saltator sing ``look now, you're a great big girl''). He knows his birds like other people know their cousins: Take the piratic flycatcher, which ``announces its presence by a variety of thin, breezy whistles that suggest a careless, easygoing, vagabond nature.'' His piece on the resemblance of marmosets and tamarinds, two primates, to tropical birdscoloration, grooming, vocalizations, diurnalityis a stretch: it fails to coalesce into a meaningful, let alone provocative, picture. But on the whole, the observations are keen fruits of a lifetime spent behind binoculars, and the writing is dignified and unadorned. A typical leisured and place-setting lead runs: ``As I walked along a woodland trail, a startled Great Tinamou rose from the ground ahead of me.'' Admittedly, there is material here that falls a few sparks short of explosivethe scant depth of the rufous piha's nest, for examplebut Skutch always invests his findings with the high purpose of bell-clear scholarship, even when of the footnote variety. (27 line drawings) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
