Johnsgard Paul A. The Plovers, Sandpipers, and Snipes of the World

Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1981. — 519 p. — ISBN13: 978-0803225534.The shorebirds of the world constitute one of the largest groups of nonpasserine birds, yet no comprehensive summary of them has been written for almost a century. In this book, intended as a companion to his earlier volume on the waterfowl family Anatidae, Paul Johnsgard deals exhaustively with the classification, identification, breeding biology, ecology, and evolution of the shorebirds and identifies contemporary problems of their conservation. Professor Johnsgard first addresses major problems of classification and evolutionary relations, then takes up comparative aspects of reproductive biology. He supplies identification keys for all the tribes, genera, and species included in the book. He then turns to individual species accounts for the 165 species he recognizes, supplementing them with distribution maps, drawings or diagrams illustrating species traits or comparative biological data, numerous black-and-white, photographs, line drawings of all species, and sixty color plates.