The Penguin Guide to New Zealand Wildlife

Forest and Bird, Issue 305, 1 August 2002, Page 44

The Penguin Guide to New Zealand Wildlife

127pp, limpbound, Penguin Books, Auckland 2002, RRP $39.95. The publisher ‘asserts the right to be identified as the author’ of this book originally published in

1985 by William Collins under the title New Zealand in the Wild. It has been brought up to date and features some fine photographs for identification, notably among the visually confusing animals such as deer, and some new species of lizards photographed by Tony Whitaker. Rod Morris makes a substantial photographic contribution elsewhere. The book identifies amphibians, reptiles, birds and

mammals, by alphabetical listing under common names. Thus, among the birds for example, bellbird and bittern share a page, as do ‘blackbird-boobies’ and ‘bunting-cockatoo-coot’ This disassociation of birds from their related species produces some bizarre associations. Though ducks and shags get treated as discrete groups, two raptors stay together by permitting the alphabet to suddenly revert from harrier to falcon then back to herons/egrets. The same problem haunts the mammals. "Goat-hare-hedgehog’ compare with ‘horse’; ‘mustelids’ (not defined by popular names) with ‘pig; and later ‘rats/mouse’. This is fine if you have a head full of the highly variable common names of animals and like searching through pictures to double check.