In the previous post I wrote about my two copies of The Observer's Book of British Birds .. .... and I wondered how the number of species in them increased over the years. ....... and which species were added at various stages ... ....... and I asked you to tell me the date and no. of species in your own copies. .... and in the meantime I'm finding some out myself ... I tracked some copies down on Amazon/E-bay etc ... here we go ... 1937 226 species 1945 still 226 sp 1952 no. of species unknown ! 1962-64 1974 243 species if you know, let me know ! 243 sp As for my two copies, unfortunately the assumed "earlier" one is undated .... but I've got off to a start by simply finding out what the "extra" species were. There were 10 of them. To please the eye of the beholder, I've done a 4 3 2 1 formation..... Little Auk Avocet Red-spotted Bluethroat Glaucous Gull Iceland Gull Marsh Harrier Great Shearwater Spotted Redshank Crested Tit Red Kite So ... I'd love to know what has happened through the 1980's plus. If anything has happened. Have they hit the buffers at 243 ? (It is an exciting number ...243 = 3x3x3x3x3 = 100000 in base 3 . Amazing !) Are they still being published ? And if so, why ?? So ... I need my readers to fill in the gaps in my data ..... that's you, by the way. And here's a question for you ... assuming that they're still going, what "new" birds would they be including ... and. perhaps, excluded . Dumped.... or maybe, furloughed. Now there's something to think about in these lock-down-stuck-indoors-times. And here's a tangentially-relevant spot of music... the first few seconds are a bit odd though ....... but on the plus side, it's got the words, so you lucky lot can sing along with Steely Dan.
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AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
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