Pigeons and Doves: A Guide To The Pigeons and Doves of The World

October 2001] Reviews 1117
The book has 585 pages of text, covering 319 spe-

cies in a popular family of birds that has fascinated
people since long before we were literate, but has
only 7.7 pages of literature citations. Barry Taylor’s
recent (1998), similarly formatted, and highly infor-
mative book Rails, for example, covers 145 more
poorly studied species with 557 pages of text fol-
lowed by 34.8 pages of literature citations. This 10-
fold difference (0.024 citation-pages per species in
The Auk 118(4):1117–1118, 2001 Pigeons and Doves vs. 0.24 in Rails) undermines the
scholarship in the former and therefore limits its util-
Pigeons and Doves: A Guide to the Pigeons and ity to scientists. Related to that is Gibbs et al.‘s ex-
Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/auk/article/118/4/1117/5562291 by guest on 08 April 2021

Doves of the World.—David Gibbs, Eustace Barnes, ceedingly brief introduction (pp. 13–15).
and John Cox. 2001. Yale University Press, New Ha- Selfishly I note that, from 1980 to 1999, I published
ven, Connecticut. 615 pp., 76 color plates, 310 text 45 journal articles or chapters in books that dealt
figures. ISBN 0-300-07886-2. Cloth, $60.00.—After substantially or exclusively with columbids, espe-
waiting nearly three decades, a decent book now ex- cially on islands. Gibbs et al. cite none of them, even
ists that describes and illustrates all living species of though much of what they mention about extinction
Columbidae. The text is by freelance ecologist and of Polynesian columbids (pp. 13, 14, 413, 543) is de-
naturalist David Gibbs and wildlife artist and bird- rived from those papers. Ignoring my papers also re-
tour leader Eustace Barnes. The color plates are by sults in inaccurate range maps for Polynesian col-
Eustace Barnes and John Cox. The plates are very umbids, whether you consider just the modern range
nice, although showing each and every species in or the combined modern and prehistoric range, the
flight might be overkill, especially for pigeons and latter being most useful to biogeographers. Should I
doves not known to fly anymore (if ever), such as Mi- feel bad that Gibbs et al. opted not to cite any of my
crogoura meeki (plate 44). papers? If the book were meant to be a superficial
Pigeons and Doves is loaded with identification-re- skimming once-over the columbids, the answer
lated information, most of which, as far as I can tell, would be no. Given the comprehensive and author-
is accurate. Inaccuracies include repeating the botched itative intent of this work (see p. 16 as well as the dust
story of the extinct Reunion Solitaire (‘‘Raphus’’ soli- jacket and advertisements), however, they should
tarius, p. 173), which Gibbs et al. say was a columbid have given credit where it is due. How, for example,
even though Mourer-Chauviré et al. (Smithsonian could they have failed to cite Baptista et al. (Handbook
Contributions to Paleobiology 89:1–38) have shown of Birds of the World, 4:60–243), the only other place
that this insular endemic was an ibis (Threskiornis so- where all living species of columbids are illustrated
litarius), not a pigeon. Resurrecting Caloenas maculata in color?
(pp. 394, 395, plate 44), a doubtfully valid species Gibbs et al. state their indebtedness to Nigel Collar
based on an eighteenth-century, juvenile specimen of for ‘‘meticulous and dedicated editing of the entire
unknown locality in the Merseyside County Museum, text’’ (p. 12). British conservationists are aware of,
seems a stretch for a book aimed to please birdwatch- and their work benefits from, my and other over-
ers. Gibbs et al. speculate that C. maculata might be looked research (published in journals such as Con-
‘‘the bird that cried ‘titi’ on Tahiti’’ (great name for a servation Biology), but they are disinclined to cite it
cheap movie, huh?). This is unlikely because ‘‘titi’’ is because we are evil museum scientists who occa-
an onomatopoetic name throughout East Polynesia for sionally collect birds. A ‘‘holier than thou’’ attitude
procellariids, especially shearwaters. The authors also pervades many bird books written in Britain these
repeat (although unreferenced) the old but untrue ad- days. (Pigeons and Doves was produced at Pica Press
age that Didunculus is a primitive, relictual genus per- in Britain; it is sold in the colonies by Yale University
haps related to Raphus or to parrots (p. 584). Press.)
Picky mistakes, such as misspellings of island Pigeons and Doves is important for providing mod-
names, can be found regularly but are easy to excuse. ern color plates, range maps, and descriptions of
Errors of omission are more common than those of plumages, including subspecies, of columbids
commission. Targeting ;30 species of Neotropical world-wide. Other aspects of columbid biology (sys-
and Oceanic columbids that I know fairly well, I tematics, evolution, biogeography, behavior, forag-
found errors of one sort or another in about half of ing ecology, breeding biology, etc.) are poorly cov-
the accounts, such as omitting the West Indies in the ered. On average, birdwatchers will like it more than
range map of Geotrygon montana (p. 389), or saying ornithologists. This is what we have come to expect
that Ptilinopus perousii is ‘‘not often found near hu- nowadays from university presses, who realize that
man habitation’’ (p. 479) when in fact this fig-spe- birdwatchers make up a larger market than scien-
cialist lives in villages as long as fruiting fig trees are tists.—DAVID W. STEADMAN, Florida Museum of Nat-
present (Steadman, Pacific Science 52:14–34). ural History, University of Florida, P.O. Box 117800,
Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/auk/article/118/4/1117/5562291 by guest on 08 April 2021
[Auk, Vol. 118
Reviews
Gainesville, Florida 32611-7800, USA. E-mail: steadman@

flmnh.ufl.edu.
1118

Pigeons and Doves: A Guide To The Pigeons and Doves of The World

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Pigeons and Doves: A Guide To The Pigeons and Doves of The World

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Pigeons and Doves: A Guide To The Pigeons and Doves of The World

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

October 2001] Reviews 1117

The book has 585 pages of text, covering 319 spe-

Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/auk/article/118/4/1117/5562291 by guest on 08 April 2021

Gainesville, Florida 32611-7800, USA. E-mail: steadman@

You might also like