The humble House Sparrow, common everywhere, was surprisingly poorly researched and Summers-Smith's work soon provided interesting insights into this successful and adaptable little bird.
Denis Summers-Smith first took up the study of the House Sparrow in 1947, thinking that the difficulties of travel in post-war Britain would best suit the study of a species always close at hand. As new opportunities to travel opened up, his interest blossomed to take in the genus Passer as a whole. His travels would ultimately lead to his study of all but one group, found only in the deepest Turkestan, and to the publication of his authoritative monograph on sparrows in 1988.
While that book presented his knowledge of sparrow biology, this volume tells the other, human, side of the tale. His wry descriptions of the tribulations and unexpected pleasures of a traveller on four continents, from the Himalayas and Thailand, to Africa and the Americas (with a good few islands in between) are interspersed with observations and speculations on the biology of sparrows in a wide variety of habitats. Everywhere local officials and birdwatchers warmed to the eccentric Scot in pursuit of the little birds that nobody notices but which so often make their homes beside us.
The author's own photographs and delightful cartoons by Euan Dunn further paint the picture of this lifelong search.
- 144 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
In Search of Sparrows
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Table of contents
- Cover
- Dedication
- Copyright page
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Chapter 01 - Beginnings
- Chapter 02 - Which is the ‘house’ sparrow? Afghanistan
- Chapter 03 - A biological mix-up: The Mediterranean basin
- Chapter 04 - Sparrow pots: Melita, Cossyra and Serendip
- Chapter 05 - The colonists: The Maraconese
- Chapter 06 - A difficult journey: The Sahara
- Chapter 07 - Going for gold: Senegal
- Chapter 08 - Paradise: Northern Kenya
- Chapter 09 - A solitary sparrow: South Africa and Botswana
- Chapter 10 - Sparrow number twenty: The Cape Verdes
- Chapter 11 - A success story: Israel and Cyprus
- Chapter 12 - Moving east: The Himalayas
- Chapter 13 - Two birds with one stone: Land of the Five Rivers
- Chapter 14 - Further east: Thailand
- Chapter 15 - Failures: USA, Seychelles, Venezuela, China
- Chapter 16 - More about the House Sparrow: Back home
- Postlude
- Appendix A - SCIENTIFIC NAMES OF BIRDS MENTIONED IN THE TEXT
- Appendix B - BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Yes, you can access In Search of Sparrows by Denis Summers-Smith in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Biological Sciences & Zoology. We have over 1.5 million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.