THE ROBINS and FLYCATCHERS OF AUSTRALIA. The National Photographic Index of Australian Wildlife. By Walter E. Boles.

1988 1st edition. Large 4to (219 x 2198mm). Ppxx,508. Colour photographs, b/w line illustrations, distribution maps, bibliography. Dark brown boards, spine titled in white.

"Yellow robins perched sideways on low tree trunks, tuneful thrushes, Willie Wagtails chasing across suburban lawns, sociable babblers preening each other (this book) covers some of the most familiar of Australian bush birds. Inhabitants, for the most part, of woods and forests, these birds, widely known as robins, flycatchers and monarchs, are largely insectivorous and arboreal. though many robins forage on the ground. Although a few, such as the thrushes, are introduced, the majority of species are native, and represent a cluster of families that, according to recent studies, appear to have their origins in Australia." Each volume of this series includes a detailed section on the eggs of the species under examination. The series, although wholely new in all aspects of its content, is modelled on Gould's Birds of Australia. "(This book) is both a serious reference book and a magnificent production, designed to give pleasure to a wide audience". This is the fifth volume in the ornithological volumes of The National Photographic Index of Australian Wildlife.