Five years ago, a young witch named Cierra broke the one unforgivable law of the witch society: she attempted to create her own magic. Her unlawful tampering burnt down a research room and injured the Mayor's daughter, Cierra's best friend. As punishment, she was exiled to the Wilderness, a barren wasteland crawling with the witch-devouring Fairies and the bloodthirsty Forsaken. After surviving for five ruthless years, her exile has now ended, and she has been ushered back to civilization, only to discover that the world around her has changed dramatically.
Crows are familiar birds to almost everyone. They are a wide-ranging group whose activities often bring them into contact with man, frequently to their detriment. However, they are a successful family, both in terms of numbers and species, which includes the Blue Jay and Magpie of North America, the Rook of England, the House Crow of India and the Little Raven of Australia. They exhibit great diversity in colour, size and patterns of behaviour. In this second edition, Derek Goodwin has retained the basic format of his earlier work, with all relevant aspects of their appearance, biology and behaviour being described, but he has added up-to-date information as appropriate, much of which was sent to him from readers of the first edition.
Crows and Jays is a combination of scientifically accurate information and an identification guide, planned to give anyone, whether a birdwatcher or biologist, a greater understanding of the lives of these beautiful, yet very complex, group of birds. 120 species of crows, jays and their allies exist in the world today. Many are exceedingly beautiful in colour, grace and form, whereas others are black and somewhat sinister in appearance. In no other group of perching birds has evolution produced such a degree of variation, from the tiny Hume's Ground-Jay of the steppe-highlands of Tibet to the huge Thick-billed Raven of the mountains of Ethiopia. Some have had a long association with people and appear in tales of mythology and superstition, while others have been regarded as agricultural pests. The great majority, however, remain largely unknown, their only contact with humanity being the destruction of their specialised habitats. As a consequence, more than 20 species are now regarded as internationally endangered, some of which are very poorly known. The 30 superb colour plates by Hilary Burn in this book depict them all; each plate is accompanied by an informative caption page summarising the criteria required to identify the species, alongside colour world distribution maps. Some of these birds, bearing such evocative names as the Banggai Crow, Mesopotamian Crow and Flores Crow, have never been illustrated before. The authoritative text by Steve Madge treats each species in depth, summarising identification techniques and concisely reviewing all aspects of corvid behaviour, distribution, population and taxonomy. The author has had first-hand experience of most of the species during his travels throughout the world, travels in which he gradually became fascinated by this very special, but somewhat ignored, group of birds. This will surely be a standard work of reference for many years to come.
V.1. History, world distribution, botany, and varieties. v.2. Anatomy, physiolo gy, genetics, and reproduction. v.3. Production technology. v.4. Crop protectio n. v.5. Crop, protection, postharvest technology, and early history of citrus r esearch in California.
