Shrikes and Bush-shrikes: Including Wood-shrikes, Helmet-shrikes, Flycatcher-shrikes, Philentomas, Batises and Wattle-eyes - T. Harris and K. Franklin. 2000. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, and Christopher Helm.—A. and C. Black, London. 392 pp, 41 color plates, 114 color distribution maps, 13 figures and dendograms, and 31 line drawings. ISBN 0-7136-3861-3. Cloth, $49.50.— Tony Harris showed his mettle as a field biologist and taxonomist in his first book on the shrikes of Southern Africa (Harris and Arnott 1988). In this very impressive book he gave a very in-depth look at a group of birds that had, although interested many a researcher, not presented before in book form. Hence, the sequel, Shrikes and Bush-shrikes, was only a question of time. However, LeFranc and Worfolk (1997) and Fry et al. (2000) beat Tony to the press and made his job all the more difficult, and us shrikeologists all the more curious to see what the end product would be like. The ornithological community was not disappointed and the end result surpassed all our expectations. Not only did the authors give a in-depth perspective into the lives of the shrikes of the world, but also into the complexities and pit-falls of their taxonomic status, and best of all included not only the true shrikes (Laniidae) as in LeFranc and Worfolk (1997), but also all the associated species found almost exclusively in Africa (wood-shrikes, helmet-shrikes, flycatcher-shrikes, philentomas, batises, and wattle-eyes) ending up with an impressive list of 114 species of 21 genera being included in the book.

The book starts out with a section on layout and methods. I strongly recommend the reader not to ruffle through these pages uninterestedly if you wish to truly understand the authors' methods and arguments further along in the book. The introduction comprises two sections, the first presenting the history and characteristic features of the shrikes, and the second a summary of the communication behavior of the 21 genera included in the book and taxonomic relationships are discussed. The authors examine shrike taxonomy under a very different light to that presented in literature to date. The second section of the introduction devotes one or two pages to each genus, accompanied by relevant line drawings, and uses vocal communication to discuss species relatedness. The latter consists of 11 page pairs of appendices discussing problems in defining species limits and the comparative characters of the genera reviewed. The methods used by Harris are novel, bordering on unusual, but present a perspective into the subject we lack to date. A piece of advice for the taxonomists amongst the readers of this book, I recommend you refer to Harris (1995) to further understand his concepts and chain of thought for the true shrikes. A glossary at the end of this section helps the reader understand the terminology applied by the authors.

As a person who has worked on true shrikes, the choice of species to be included in the book appears to be arbitrary. All of the 114 species included are part of the Corvoidea superfamily and are mostly Afrotropical. Only 17 of the true shrikes are Holarctic. All of the others are either Afrotropical (93) or Asian wood-shrikes or Philentomas (17).

The 41 color plates are impressive and give an impression of an artist who knows the birds in the field. The gizz, behavior, and habitat in which they can be found are well portrayed. The species are well spaced out and for each species between 2–10 plumages and color-morphs or variances are presented. Also of great help is that for most of the species a bird in flight is included. Opposite each plate, a key to the drawings, a short descriptive note, and color-coded distribution maps are presented. The latter are one of the few complaints I have in the book—although ample space is available on the page, in many cases the maps are cramped and cover large geographical regions making it difficult to discern range limits.

The next section consists of 215 pages of species accounts. Each species account ranges from one (for the lesser-known species) to four pages, for the better-studied species. Those accounts include headings such as “Field Identification,” “Geographical Variation,” “Moult,” “Range,” “Habitat and Status,” “Movements,” “Social Organization and General Behavior,” “Sounds,” “Breeding Biology,” and “Measurements and Weights.” Also included is information pertaining to hybrids and abnormal plumage. Species accounts are quite exhaustive based on the literature available.

The text is well referenced and, although they may appear a hindrance to the casual reader, is a treasure trove for those who wish to look into specific topics in further detail. The bibliography includes 1,086 references and it is arranged in a cumbersome manner. All published references are presented in superscript form in the text and the reader has to first check the reference number against a table of the references arranged in the order of use in the book and only then turn to the conventional list of references that give the full details. That system makes it easier for the casual reader to jump the long lists of numbers but difficult and irritating for those looking for additional reading.

Additional information not included in the species accounts can be found in the two appendices at the end of the book. The first appendix attempts to pinpoint what needs to be studied further to clarify our understanding of the taxonomical relationships of the species included in the book. Appendix 2 presents the comparative characters for the species and ranges from topics such as morphology (osteology, general, potential signal areas) to biochemical to behavior (general, courtship, breeding, vocals, foraging), and includes additional information such as parasites (blood, ecto-, endo-). The book ends with a species index that does not include subspecies.

In general, even though I have been critical about some points in the book, I consider this to be a commendable achievement. This book will serve both communities well, and the casual reader will want it with them on field trips—especially to the Old World—to help identify and understand this complex genera, and to help present the professional ornithologist with the major portion of research conducted to date in a concise manner and to suggest what to do in future studies. This can be especially instructive to advisors of graduate students looking for a research topic. I highly recommend this book and found it to be very well presented, pleasing to the eye, high quality, and informative and it does justice to a great and intriguing group of birds.