Peterson Reference Guide To Sparrows of North America

An 'entertaining' history and illustrated guide to seventy-six kinds of sparrows: 'You will not find more complete or better written accounts of these birds.' -Minneapolis Star Tribune What, exactly, is a sparrow? All birders (and many non-birders) have essentially the same mental image of a pelican, a duck, or a flamingo, and a guide dedicated to waxwings or kingfishers would need nothing more than a sketch and a single sentence to satisfactorily identify its subject. Sparrows are harder to pin down. This book covers one family-Passerellidae-which includes towhees and juncos, and 76 members of the sparrow clan. Birds have a human history, too, beginning with their significance to native cultures and continuing through their discovery by science, their taxonomic fortunes and misfortunes, and their prospects for survival in a world with ever less space for wild creatures. This book includes not just facts and measurements, but stories-of how birds got their names and how they were discovered, and of their entanglement with our own species.