A Field Guide to Australian Birds (Slater)
Encyclopedia
A Field Guide to Australian Birds is a two-volume bird
field guide
published by Rigby of Adelaide, South Australia, in its Rigby Field Guide series. The first volume (Volume One: Non-Passerines) was issued in 1970, with the second volume (Volume Two: Passerines) appearing in 1974. It was Australia
’s first new national bird field guide since the 1931 publication of the first edition of Neville Cayley
’s What Bird is That?
. It was principally authored by Australian ornithologist
, artist and photographer Peter Slater
.
and all 64 plates illustrating the bird species. His collaborators were John Calaby, Graeme Chapman, Joseph Forshaw
, Harold Frith
, Peter Fullagar, Gerry van Tets
and Eric Lindgren. Volume Two was essentially all his own work. Individual maps indicate the Australian range of each species.
Volume One was reviewed in the Emu
by Arnold McGill
(as A.R. McG.):
McGill also reviewed Volume Two when it was published:
No revised and updated edition of the guide was ever issued. However, in 1986 Slater produced, in collaboration with other members of his family, the completely new, one-volume Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds
.
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
field guide
Field guide
A field guide is a book designed to help the reader identify wildlife or other objects of natural occurrence . It is generally designed to be brought into the 'field' or local area where such objects exist to help distinguish between similar objects...
published by Rigby of Adelaide, South Australia, in its Rigby Field Guide series. The first volume (Volume One: Non-Passerines) was issued in 1970, with the second volume (Volume Two: Passerines) appearing in 1974. It was Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
’s first new national bird field guide since the 1931 publication of the first edition of Neville Cayley
Neville William Cayley
Neville William Cayley was a celebrated Australian author, artist and ornithologist. He produced Australia's first comprehensive bird field guide What Bird is That?...
’s What Bird is That?
What Bird is That?
What Bird is That? A Guide to the Birds of Australia is a book first published in 1931 by Angus & Robertson in Sydney. Authored and illustrated by Neville William Cayley, it was Australia’s first fully illustrated national field guide to birds, a function it served alone for nearly 40 years...
. It was principally authored by Australian ornithologist
Ornithology
Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and the aesthetic appeal of birds...
, artist and photographer Peter Slater
Peter Slater
Peter Slater is an Australian ornithologist, wildlife artist and photographer.Slater grew up in Western Australia and moved to North Queensland in 1966. He began photographing birds from an early age, has won numerous awards in international exhibitions, and was made an Artiste of the Fédération...
.
Description
The two volumes are 190 mm high by 130 mm wide. With Volume One, Slater had collaborators who contributed much of the text, while he contributed the text on the FalconiformesFalconiformes
The order Falconiformes is a group of about 290 species of birds that comprises the diurnal birds of prey. Raptor classification is difficult and the order is treated in several ways.- Classification problems :...
and all 64 plates illustrating the bird species. His collaborators were John Calaby, Graeme Chapman, Joseph Forshaw
Joseph Forshaw
Joseph Michael Forshaw is an Australian ornithologist, and the world's foremost expert on parrots. He was the former head of wildlife conservation for the Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service.-References:...
, Harold Frith
Harold James Frith
Harold James Frith AO was an Australian administrator and ornithologist. He was born at Kyogle, New South Wales and studied Agricultural Science at Sydney University. He first joined the CSIRO Division of Plant Industry but later transferred to the Division of Wildlife and carried out extensive...
, Peter Fullagar, Gerry van Tets
Gerard Frederick van Tets
Gerard Frederick van Tets , otherwise known as Jerry van Tets, was a twentieth century English ornithologist and paleontologist. Born in London on 19 January 1929, he became a member of the American Ornithologists' Union in 1958 and studied at the University of British Columbia, obtaining his PhD...
and Eric Lindgren. Volume Two was essentially all his own work. Individual maps indicate the Australian range of each species.
Volume One was reviewed in the Emu
Emu (journal)
Emu, subtitled Austral Ornithology, is the peer-reviewed scientific journal of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union. The journal was established in 1901 and is the oldest ornithological journal published in Australia...
by Arnold McGill
Arnold Robert McGill
Arnold Robert McGill OAM was a Sydney-based Australian businessman and amateur ornithologist. He was President of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union 1958-1959, and elected a Fellow of the RAOU in 1965. He was Assistant Editor of the RAOU journal, the Emu 1948-1969 and compiled indexes...
(as A.R. McG.):
"Except for Cayley’s What Bird is That? there has been no readily available publication in which all Australian species are illustrated. Mr P. Slater is now filling a great need. The first part of his work is available and the second will, it is understood, soon be completed. A Field Guide to Australian Birds has a much wider scope than Cayley’s book. Apart from the continent and TasmaniaTasmaniaTasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
it covers the political dependencies NorfolkNorfolk IslandNorfolk Island is a small island in the Pacific Ocean located between Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia. The island is part of the Commonwealth of Australia, but it enjoys a large degree of self-governance...
, Lord HoweLord Howe IslandLord Howe Island is an irregularly crescent-shaped volcanic remnant in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand, directly east of mainland Port Macquarie, and about from Norfolk Island. The island is about 11 km long and between 2.8 km and 0.6 km wide with an area of...
, MacquarieMacquarie IslandMacquarie Island lies in the southwest corner of the Pacific Ocean, about half-way between New Zealand and Antarctica, at 54°30S, 158°57E. Politically, it has formed part of the Australian state of Tasmania since 1900 and became a Tasmanian State Reserve in 1978. In 1997 it became a world heritage...
, HeardHeard Island and McDonald IslandsThe Heard Island and McDonald Islands are an Australian external territory and volcanic group of barren Antarctic islands, about two-thirds of the way from Madagascar to Antarctica. The group's overall size is in area and it has of coastline...
, ChristmasChristmas IslandThe Territory of Christmas Island is a territory of Australia in the Indian Ocean. It is located northwest of the Western Australian city of Perth, south of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, and ENE of the Cocos Islands....
and Cocos-Keeling IslandsCocos (Keeling) IslandsThe Territory of the Cocos Islands, also called Cocos Islands and Keeling Islands, is a territory of Australia, located in the Indian Ocean, southwest of Christmas Island and approximately midway between Australia and Sri Lanka....
. This is commendable; for, often these outposts of the Commonwealth have been sadly neglected ornithologically and for the first time a fully illustrated guide is available, reasonably priced, covering the whole area except the New Guinea region. It is therefore interesting to see included in an Australian book such species as the Ruddy CrakeRuddy CrakeThe Ruddy Crake is a bird in the rail family, Rallidae. It is a small crake, 14-16.5 cm in length. It is mostly bright chestnut in colour with a paler chin and belly, blackish crown and dark grey ear-coverts. The bill is black, the iris is red and the legs and feet are olive-green.The bird...
(Christmas Island), WoodhenLord Howe WoodhenThe Lord Howe Woodhen, Gallirallus sylvestris, also known as the Lord Howe Island Woodhen or Lord Howe Rail, is a flightless bird of the rail family . It is endemic to Lord Howe Island off the Australian coast. It is a small olive brown bird, with a short tail and a downcurved bill...
(Lord Howe), WekaWekaThe Weka or woodhen is a flightless bird species of the rail family. It is endemic to New Zealand, where four subspecies are recognized. Weka are sturdy brown birds, about the size of a chicken. As omnivores, they feed mainly on invertebrates and fruit...
(Macquarie) and even a new family (SheathbillSheathbillThe sheathbills are a family of birds, Chionidae. Classified in the wader order Charadriiformes, the family contains one genus, Chionis, with only two species...
s), which occurs on Heard Island."
"The illustrations throughout are ample and appear well-executed. Of special significance are the outlines of bills of the ProcellariiformesProcellariiformesProcellariiformes is an order of seabirds that comprises four families: the albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters, storm petrels, and diving petrels...
, drawn to actual size, thus providing for a direct check with any specimen examined in the hand or found as a beach derelict. Patterns of flight, especially of seabirdSeabirdSeabirds are birds that have adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same environmental problems and feeding niches have resulted in similar adaptations...
s, hawkHawkThe term hawk can be used in several ways:* In strict usage in Australia and Africa, to mean any of the species in the subfamily Accipitrinae, which comprises the genera Accipiter, Micronisus, Melierax, Urotriorchis and Megatriorchis. The large and widespread Accipiter genus includes goshawks,...
s, ternTernTerns are seabirds in the family Sternidae, previously considered a subfamily of the gull family Laridae . They form a lineage with the gulls and skimmers which in turn is related to skuas and auks...
s and waderWaderWaders, called shorebirds in North America , are members of the order Charadriiformes, excluding the more marine web-footed seabird groups. The latter are the skuas , gulls , terns , skimmers , and auks...
s, are also depicted carefully. Allowing for difficulties in reproducing exact colour, the appearance and shades of species are most pleasing. The size of bill of the Red-necked StintRed-necked StintThe Red-necked Stint is a small migratory wader.- Description :These birds are among the smallest of waders, very similar to the Little Stint, Calidris minuta, with which they were once considered conspecific...
(p.279) is far too long, but care in such matters is widely apparent. Because there might be some confusion in identifying swallowSwallowThe swallows and martins are a group of passerine birds in the family Hirundinidae which are characterised by their adaptation to aerial feeding...
s and swiftSwiftThe swifts are a family, Apodidae, of highly aerial birds. They are superficially similar to swallows, but are actually not closely related to passerine species at all; swifts are in the separate order Apodiformes, which they share with hummingbirds...
s, the former family has been added after the Coraciidae. The second part of this publication will be as eagerly awaited as was the first. The whole will be a notable contribution to the ornithology of Australia and a very helpful guide to every field-worker."
McGill also reviewed Volume Two when it was published:
"It is five years since the first volume of this work dealing with the non-passerines became available and most people with ornithological interests in Australia and many overseas possess a copy. Therefore the appearance of this volume on passerines has been eagerly awaited. It completes the work, which many will no doubt compare with Cayley’s long-standing best-seller, What Bird is That? However, because of different style in the illustrations, the gap between them of over forty years and particularly the different order of presentation of species fair comparison is difficult. Slater’s work bears closer affinity with Macdonald’s Birds of Australia (1973), although the latter is more of a handbook than a field guide."
"My copy of this guide to Australian passerines (which has noticeably fewer pages and is more strongly bound than the non-passerine volume) will remain a valued possession and I will often wish to consult it. Instead of endeavouring to weigh its merits against some predecessors, I know that it contains data not available in What Bird is That? and Birds of Australia. It will take its place beside those two books and its non-passerine partner as a worthy addition to my library."
No revised and updated edition of the guide was ever issued. However, in 1986 Slater produced, in collaboration with other members of his family, the completely new, one-volume Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds
The Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds
The Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds is one of the main national bird field guides used by Australian birders.-Description:The guide was first published in 1986 in Sydney by Rigby Publishers and authored by Peter Slater and other members of his family. It is 215 mm high by 113 mm...
.
External links
- Review of Volume 2 by A.R. McGill