MAMMALS OF THE WORLD: A CHECKLIST. By Andrew Duff and Ann Lawson.

# 2004 1st US edition. Large 8vo (173 x 246mm). Pp312. 300-page list, bibliography. Lacks illustrations. Brown boards, spine titled in gilt.

# This is an up to date check list of all the known species of mamals in the world, with 522 new species described between 1993 and 2002, as well as 41 species which have been reclassified as sub-species in that time. This is a valuable reference for anyone who is studying mammals, and particularly, provides a point of reference with regard to the ongoing extinction of many species. "Lest it be thought that these [currently endangered species] are nearly all obscure species of bats and rodents, which in truth nobody apart from mammalogists would miss, it should be pointed out that for eighteen families of mammals - over 14 percent of the families that remain - every species in that family is graded by IUCN as Near Threatened, Vulnerable, Endangered or Critically Endangered." This includes many bats, sperm whales, the river dolphins of three continents, the dugongs and manatees, rhinoceroses, tapirs and elephants. This is a useful book. However, for the casual reader, Mammals of the World: A Checklist, is just that, a 300-page list, with only one sentence on where each species is to be found, plus its Latin name and common name. This book has no pictures.