Author(s): NEVILLE CAYLEY

Animals

The first edition of Neville W. Cayleya's WHAT BIRD IS THAT? was published in 1931. Cayleya's aim in creating this work was to make available a book that would encourage and help people to learn about and appreciate Australia's remarkable and unique birdlife. He saw and resopnded to a need for a simple book that was accessible to the non-specialist birdwatcher. Each species was illustrated in colour and the birds were organised according to their usual habitat. The accompanying text included brief notes on distribution, breeding and behaviour. What Cayley described as his "little bird book" was enthusiastically received and became a classic. It was reprinted and revised many times. Meanwhile the prolific Cayley was working on a much more ambitious project -- his so-called "big bird book". From about 1918, he was creating illustrations of subspecies and plumage stages of all the Australian birds. The project was imcomplete at the time of his death in 1950, although the illustrations were all but finished. This Signature Edition is a reprint of the last, and most significant, revision of WHAT BIRD IS THAT? undertaken by Terence Lindsey and published in 1984. It incorporates the illustrations Cayley created over so many years for his abandoned "big bird book" and includes a revised taxonomy. With hundreds of beautiful and accurate illustrations, distribution maps, concise species notes and an easily accessible arrangement by habitat, this revised and updated edition of Australiaa??s classic bird guide will once again become an indispensble family reference and inspire a new generation to identify, admire and protect our unique and often vulnerable birdlife.