THE CHANGING WORLD OF BIRDS

In separate chapters dealing with habitat, nesting and rearing of young, adaptations, migration, food habits, and bird mortality, Anderson surveys the world of birds in terms of man's impact on it. He emphasizes the importance of birds in the balance of nature and the threats to the various species from changing land use, pesticides, oil spills, and other man-made disruptions of the balance. In style and structure this is just another of the classified compilations of facts so common among YA titles, but the conservationist approach is not just tacked on here; it shapes each topic of Anderson's report, making the whole a useful source in the new ecology-oriented biology curriculum.