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Tuatara: Volume 16, Issue 2, July 1968

Reviews

page 162

Reviews

The New Zealand Sea Shore

This Book is a major milestone in New Zealand biology, and should meet with unqualified approval not only in New Zealand but overseas as well. It is written and illustrated in an enthusiastic and masterly fashion—reflecting very well the outlook and ability of its authors. It is, to a large extent, modesty on the part of the latter that makes them remark (p. 281) on “the temerity of the Auckland authors in believing that a northern-based book will have a broader interest to New Zealand marine biologists as a whole.’ In making this remark they are rightly qualifying their view that “In its sea-shore geography New Zealand is one country. An Aucklander travelling to the far south will still be able to recognise a majority of the animals and a significant number of the algae’.

The book is divided into an introductory portion followed by three main sections. The introduction deals with the naming and classification of organisms, the ways in which sea-shores are formed and moulded, and the role of the tides (this chapter also discusses shore zonation in general, and the principles of its study).

Section One is entitled “Zones and Habitats’, and some indication of its content is given by its sub-headings, as follows:—
  • Zoning Plants and Animals in Moderate Shelter

  • Boulder Beaches and their Inhabitants

  • The Reef-Fringe at Low Water: I. Filter Feeders

  • The Reef-Fringe at Low Water: II. Carnivores, Herbivores and Deposit Feeders

  • Tidal Pools

  • The Intimate Fauna of Seaweeds

  • Animals of Crevices and Borings.

Sections Two and Three, which are similarly expansive and detailed, deal with Hard Shore-Lines and Soft Shores respectively.

All sections contain not only the content that one might expect, ie. a descriptive account of the various habitats, the physical factors that affect them, and their faunas and floras, but as well much additional matter in the way of comment, explanation, and correlation of habitat, form and function. In fact there is a great deal of anatomy and physiology usefully interpolated to explain particular situations. Similarly one welcomes the presence of occasional keys to indicator organisms, or to organisms or groups that are frequently not well known. A summary of the main physical factors of the seas around New Zealand, the currents, temperatures etc., could be expected and is given, as is a brief view of information on biogeographic provinces.

The book concludes with some brief and mindful remarks on the need for conservation of New Zealand sea coasts, and with a very adequate Glossary, an extensive and well-organised Bibliography, and finally guides to the contents of the book subdivided into a Taxonomic Guide and an Index.

page 163

The book is very thoroughly and beautifully illustrated with hand-painted colour plates, black and white photographs, and numerous line-drawings.

The writing is notable for its clarity, simplicity, interest, and character. It is never dull, and is often colourful—as for example when describing the bullkelp, Durvillea which “can be safely reached at low tide as they stand with golden stipe erect and the blade arched and shining with dark lax thongs’.

Any competitor to this book on the New Zealand scene is going to have a difficult task to be its peer.

—J.A.F.G.

Rocky Shore Ecology of the Leigh Area, North Auckland

Shore Ecology is seldom so well presented and illustrated as in this concise forty-four page booklet by Professors Morton and Chapman. It covers the shore ecology of the area near the marine laboratory run by the University of Auckland. Sufficient climatic and geological background is given to support the ecology, which is shown in a series of three dimensional drawings of transects. These are so clearly portrayed that even a non-biologist would have little difficulty in following the main differences in the various habitats discussed. These include exposed and sheltered terraces, cave mouths, coves, crevices and reef flats. The study concludes with a reference to other aspects of shore ecology awaiting further study, and also gives a useful bibliography.

The authors state in their introduction that the chief justification for another description of a New Zealand shore is that it will provide other workers in the Leigh area with a framework for advances of a more detailed kind. I hope that other marine laboratories will follow this very sound lead, as it allows visiting workers to plan their study in advance, with the minimum of correspondence.

Professors Morton and Chapman are to be congratulated on the production of an excellent booklet.

— R.B.P.

The Fringe of the Sea

If You are Looking for a book about sea animals that combines to a rare degree the skilful blending of artistic illustration with a text satisfying to a zoologist and easily understood by the layman, as well as a book with a pleasing typography, then Miss Bennett's book on “The Fringe of the Sea’ will find a place on your bookshelf. Miss Bennett regards the fringe of the sea as that “fascinating strip of the earth's surface that is neither land nor sea, yet belongs page 164 to both’. It is a good definition as the majority of the animals in this environment live submerged in the sea attached to the seafloor, buried in the sea floor, or live in crevices among rocks on the foreshore.

There are seven chapters in all, six of these are descriptive of the the major groups of animals found at the fringe of the sea namely the sponges, coelenterates, marine worms, crustaceans, molluscs and echinoderms. The final chapter is a brief but authoritative account of “the living coral reef’. Much has been written, and illustrations of high calibre have been recorded of the frequently colourful and eye catching animals and plants of coral reef formations. Miss Bennett has chosen—and I think chosen wisely—to highlight other lesser known, but equally fascinating, and still in many ways controversial aspects of coral reef formation as well as the external and internal environmental factors influencing the community life of reef dwellers as a whole.

New Zealanders should not think of this book as containing information of no interest on this side of the Tasman Sea, because many of the crabs, barnacles, marine worms, sea anemones, molluscs and starfish describeed are identical or very closely allied to animals common at the fringe of the sea in New Zealand. Even some of the large jellyfish usually associated in our minds with the Australian tropical region, are now known to occur in northern New Zealand waters.

The price at $A10 may seem high, but weighted against the AI quality of the illustrations it is hard to see how it could be less.

— P.M.R.

A Field Guide to the Birds of New Zealand

When three Ornithologists with the stature of the authors collaborate in compiling a field-guide to the birds of New Zealand, it goes without saying the product will be good. This book is surely a must for everyone interested in our wildlife.

It is stated in the preface that “the aim of the book is to enable the serious student, the visitor, the sailor and, perhaps above all the amateur naturalist’—“to satisfy his curiosity, to know what bird he is watching and what to expect, anywhere on and around the many islands which make up New Zealand.’ In general the book achieves this aim. However, because the birds are grouped in orders, and nowhere is their a list of birds by habitat or region — it follows, that unless the observer has already digested the book or has a good local or specialist knowledge of birds, could he know what to expect anywhere?

The text closely follows the Peterson system which begins with a description of each species e.g. length, colouration and any special morphological features, followed by information on voice, habitat, range and nesting characteristics. Nesting information is omitted for those migratory species which do not breed in New Zealand.

Shortly after publication of the field-guide a colleague and I (without guide) were mystified by the antics of a pair of gull-like terns, seen over several days feeding in the Westshore Wildlife Refuge near Napier. The literature available to us locally failed to identify the birds, but on returning page 165 to Wellington a quick check of the Field-Guide left no doubt that our birds were white winged black terns. The standard of description here was excellent, and applies to all birds with which I am familiar.

In general the line drawings and contrast plates are extremely good, with the colour plates not quite so pleasing. Most printers will admit that it is difficult to register colours on small individual objects, and probably to reduce bulk the authors have perhaps placed too many birds on each colour plate, making the colour register even more difficult. For these reasons, one can forgive the slight imperfections in colour reproduction.

The only real criticism of the art work done so ably by Chloe Talbot Kelly of the British Museum, London, is that some of the ducks are too portly to be true.

The one distressing aspect of the whole book is the seemingly random placement of plates in relation to the text. After reading the section on rails and commencing that on waders, there is an illustration of cormorants; again, after finishing the section on ducks and starting that on hawks, one finds a plate on the heads of petrels, 39 and 38 pages respectively after each relevant section. All plates in fact are somewhat misplaced relative to the text. Surely for little extra cost they could have been sited more accurately. When the book is reprinted, either the plates, or the sections should be adjusted to conform.

There are two pages on extinction and survival which outline the tragic decline and disappearance of much of New Zealand's peculiar avian fauna, and what's been done in recent times to check this state of affairs.

Most readers wanting further knowledge will find the bibliography useful, and the index is complete and easy to use.

This book surely ranks as an indispensible vade-mecum for the more experienced ornithologist, but the absence of guide keys by size, habitat or region restricts its use for the amateur.

— T.A.C.

Know your New Zealand Birds

Kaj Westerskov, Biologist, Reader in Zoology and perhaps above all a family man, has set out to write a compact, lucid book on field identification of New Zealand birds, so that the amateur may share with the expert the pleasures of bird watching and identification.

The author's two oldest children, a senior scout and guide respectively, probably helped stimulate him to compile this excellent book.

The first paragraph of the preface sets out the book's aim—it is a guide to New Zealand birds for young people, guides and scouts, students, trampers, shooters, campers, immigrants, overseas visitors and budding bird watchers. This aim it will achieve—it requires little refinement and thus leaves little room for criticism. However, it does fall short of its aim to be a pocket guide—nobody could comfortably sit on it and it would require an extremely generous pocket anywhere to accommodate it. If it was paper-backed rather than hard-backed it would then conform to pocket requirements.

There are four different ways for bird identification. (1) the index and (2) the quick reference are useful for those with a good idea as to what bird they are looking at. But the next two sections, (3) the field key page 166 and (4) identification by habitat, with ten habitat types listed, are ideal for the novice. In other words these sections will go close to permitting “anyone’ to identify their birds down to species.

There are sections on sex and age determination, song tracks, birds found on roadsides, dead on beaches, game birds, bird journals and organisations etc.

The bibliography is ideally selected. There are 16 colour plates taken from Buller's Birds of New Zealand, and 75 photographs, some of which have not reproduced well, e.g. the sooty and fluttering shearwaters, the spotted shags and the pukeko. I am sure these could have been improved on, had the author used photographs taken by others, rather than remain restricted to his own collection, good as it is.

Overall, the amount of information packed into 143 pages is astounding and the manner of presentation excellent, making the book worthy of success.

— T.A.C.