Pittas of the World
by Johannes and Helga Erritzoe
Sponsored by the Carlsberg Foundation, Copenhagen
- About the book
- Contents of the book
- Book reviews
- Publication details
- Where to order the book
- Post and read comments on Pittas here
This book is a monograph of one of the most beautiful bird families of the world: the pittas, illustrated by Helga Boullet Erritzoe
About the book
Pittas are for good reasons called "the living jewels of the rain forest", and all who has seen them like a flash of their indescribable colours in the thickets become pitta fans forever.
There are 30 different species of pittas, most of them in South-east Asia, the Philippines, Australia and Borneo, but two species are found in Africa. Their habitat, the rain forest, is under threat and many species are therefore endangered.
This monograph breaks with tradition in a number of ways:
Besides all the normal sections for a monograph, it contains a complete
list of all scientific synonyms and a bibliography of more than 1,3oo
references; it includes a list of all little-studied islands where pittas
have been found and their status if known, and it gives the museum holdings
of nearly all pitta skins, skeletons, eggs, and fluid specimens in the
world.
The book also describes a study of a little-known feature, dusky stripes, unique to the pitta family, which has never before been described in detail, and a unique moulting pattern: immature birds moulting into their adult plumage are often found with bald heads and necks.
The research on this book has taken 4 years with 4½ months visits to the British Museum in Tring, New York, Berlin, Leiden and Copenhagen. 3,200 photos of pitta skins, a thorough plumage description and colour determination by means of a colour guide with 1,400 different colours, and many thousands measurements were taken. All information on the skin labels
and egg catalogues was also recorded. Moreover, study skins were borrowed from many other museums.
The beautiful colour illustrations are painted in gouache by Helga Boullet Erritzoe, using a dry-brush technique. Each plate has been meticulously laid out to enhance the characteristics of each species. All plates are cross-referenced to the text, which contains details of age and sex of the bird, and specifies the museum where the depicted bird-skin is kept, with its registration number. In order to learn the postures and behaviour of the pittas a live Fairy Pitta was kept in captivity for two years.
Whilst it will be of undoubted interest to amateur bird enthusiasts and pitta lovers, the book is also scientifically based and is therefore an invaluable and beautiful reference guide for ornithologists, conservationists, aviculturists, museums and collectors of fine bird-books.
Plan of the book
- Topography of a bird
- Family introduction
- SPECIES ACCOUNT
- Scientific name
- English, French, German and Italian name
- First description of the type
- Subspecies
- Synonyms
- Description
- Photographs of live birds
- Dusky stripes
- Allied species
- Distribution with map
- Recent records after 1975
- Movements
- Habitat
- Behaviour
- Vocalization
- Food and feeding behaviour
- Breeding biology
- Moulting
- Captivity
- General notes
- Parasites and diseases
- Museum diagnosis (measurements, museum holdings of skins etc.)
- Hybridisation
- Status and conservation
- References
- Colour plate
- APPENDIXES
- Key to all synonyms and new proposed names
- Glossery
- Museum acronyms
- Pitta species by islands and their status
- World inventary of pitta egg and nest collections
- World inventory of pitta skeletons and fluid preserved specimens
- Persons who have contributed important information to this book
- Bibliography
- Index
Reviews
Two
years after the publication of an identification guide on Pittas, Broadbills
and Asities (Lambert & Woodcock 1996, Pica Press, Sussex), this monograph
on the Pitta family was published. After a very detailed chapter on the
Pitta familiy and its place within the Passeriformes there are 30 species
accounts, a key to the synonyms and new proposed names, a glossary, 5
appendices and an impressive bibliography (ca. 1300 references). Anyone
interested in Pittas should have this book. The texts are very well organised,
with clear headings and subdivisions, information on recent records (after
1975), habitat, vocalisations, food and feeding behaviour, breeding biology,
moult, biometrics, and worldwide museum holdings of skins. Perhaps not
expected in a book like this are sections on Pittas in captivity, which
include incredible details such as the survival of individuals on a diet
of Wayme dog food with vitamins and mixed with finely diced whole three-day-old
mice, or the co-existence for two months of a 40mm ground beetle with
a (Fairy) Pitta without being eaten, apparently because "Pittas are
not birds for the beginner in aviculture." This book is a must, because
if it isn't in the book, or cannot be found using the spectacular bibliography,
it is either unknown or not worth to be known. (CJC)
Ardea 86(2), 1998
Die beiden Autoren haben ein wichtiges und schönes Buch geschaffen, das in die Bibliothek eines jeden Ornithologen und Liebhabers dieses Vogelgruppe gehört.
Gefiederte Welt
Pitta fanatics, of whom there are more than a few, and researchers will find this work essential.
Bulletin African Bird Club 6 (1) 1999
This is a great book! It is packed with information, being about the current state of our knowledge of this wonderful group of birds, the Pittas, with a strong conservation bias.
Corella Dec. 1998
The whole work is enriched with magnificent illustralions painted in gouache by Helga Boullet Erritzoe using a dry-brush technique
Acta Ornithol. 35 (3-4) 1998.
För
dem som vill fördjupa sig i familjen pittor, kan jag rekommendera denna
bok varmt.
Vår Fågelvärld 1 1999
This
work was produced by individuals financially supporting themselves, their
science and art. Both author and artist are well established and known
in Denmark their first book in 1993 brought them to world attention.
Although the authors are not observers of pittas in their natural habitats,
it is clear from innumerable references to the literature, correspondents
and personal communications that they have been extremely conscientious
and in seeking published and unpublished pitta information.
This is combined with their own meticulous work in the museum, library
and study/studio to result in a comprehensive work well beyond the scope
imposed upon Lambert & Woodcock (1996), the most recent book to feature
pittas....
I recommrend it as good value for money.
Emu 4 1999
To describe the book as "scientific based" is too modest. The nomenclature and description sections are treated with a rigour that should satisfy the most exacting taxonomist, and the general sections are enclyclopaedic in their coverage and must include every scrap of information ever published about these birds anywhere.
B. E. Smythies (author of "The Birds of Burma and the Birds of Borneo")
Publication details
Specifikations: 240 pp, 32 coulor plates. 297 x 210 mm hardback with colour jacket.
Publication: June 1998
ISBN: 0 7188 2961 1
Where to order
NHBS Mailorder Bookstore, 2-3 Wills Road, Totnes, Devon TQ9 5XN, England
Tel.: +44 18 03 86 59 13, Fax: +44 18 03 86 52 80,
E-mail: nhbs@nhbs.co.uk
Catalogue No. 71089M
Price: £ 30.- + p&p £ 5.-