THE BIRDS OF THE WESTERN PALEARCTIC: CONCISE EDITION. BASED ON THE HANDBOOK OF THE BIRDS OF EUROPE... Two volume set. By D.W. Snow, C.M. Perrins and others.

1998 1st edition thus. Two 4to vols (205 x 260mm). Ppxxxii,1008,43[name index];xvi,,43[name index] 1010-1694. Colour paintings*, b/w ills, distribution maps.

"...the Middle East and North Africa". This splendid two-volume set precies the most important information of the nine volumes of The Handbook of the Birds of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa (Stanley Cramp, editor). The format is slightly smaller than the original, but still ample*. Some hundreds of paintings, all excellent, are included. Artists are; Richar Allen, Norman Arlott, Paul Barruel, Trevor Boyer, Hilary Burn, Philip Burton, C.J.F. Coombs, John Davis, H. Harris, Martin Elliott, Kim Franklin, Robert Gillmor, Alan Harris, Peter Hayman, Mark Hulme, Ian Lewington, Andrew MacKay, Viggo Ree, Darren Rees, Chris Rose, Christopher Schmidt, Sir Peter Scott, Brian Small, C.E. Talbot-Kelly, Laurel Tucker, D.I.M. Wallace, Jan Wilczur, Ian Willis, and Dan Zetterstrom. Volume I covers the passerines (perching birds), and Volume II the non-passerines (all the others). A lovely pair of books containing a mammoth amount of information, without any sense of crowding, or sacrifice of satisfactory space for the paintings and measured distribution maps. If you lack the inclination or depth of pocket to own Cramp et al's nine-volume Handbook, but have any interest at all in birds or natural history, this pair of volumes is a must.