Birds – Myth, Lore & Legend by Rachel Warren Chadd & Marianne Taylor

Published by Bloomsbury hard back, Price £25.00 Pages 304

This book covers birds from around the world with some British species and some of our most noted birds like eagles and ostriches. It is a book which you don’t have to read all at once so you can pick and choose. Some species have several pages of coverage and some only one [not including the picture of the bird]. Horus the Peregrine is well shown in its Egyptian god image while the x of an ancient American tribe is the foot of a road runner found on their rock art. The birds are not in alphabetical order and most of the pictures of the birds are modern photos. There are some examples of James Audubon’s brilliant work especially the Mockingbird and David Tipling’s Starling roost at Gretna Green is certainly not a ‘photo shop’! This another book to consider adding to the stocking this Xmas.