Collins Field Guide to Wildlife Sounds, Britain and Ireland [Including an Audio CD] by GeoffSampleReview by: Paddy SleemanThe Irish Naturalists' Journal, Vol. 28, No. 8 (Feb. 26, 2007), p. 347Published by: Irish Naturalists' Journal Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25536800 .

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Ir. Nat J. Volume 28 No 8 2006

(subdivided by habitats), fauna (particularly birds, butterflies and moths), the seashore (concentrating on marine algae and molluscs) and, lastly, farming with an emphasis on REPS (Rural Environment Protection Scheme). It concludes with a useful six-page bibliography and a series of indexes to the

scientific, English and Irish names for the flora and fauna, and a general index to subjects. This pocket-sized paperback, illustrated with colour photographs, is an excellent introduction to

the natural history of a compact and fascinating archipelago, geologically an 'extension' of The Burren's

glaciated karst landscape. Aran's well-documented flora includes one flowering plant, purple milk-vetch,

bleachtphisean Astragalus danicus which is not found anywhere else in Ireland. Similarly a subspecies of bumblebee Bombus muscorum smithianus is confined within Ireland to these limestone islands. A few other plants like cornflower Centaurea cyanus have a refuge there, and "70 percent of the entire north west European population" of the chough, c^g cosdearg, Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax resides on the Aran

Islands."

The Aran Islands have long been deemed, wrongly in some senses, as the last bastion of 'Celtic' Ireland. Invaluably, O'Rourke provides a glimpse into the use of plants in folk remedies and also

notes local Irish names for some species. Like The Burren, human occupation has profoundly influenced the flora and fauna, and the

survival of the Aran Islands' distinctive flora, and all that flows from it, including eco-tourism, depends on

the continuation of low-intensity farming as O'Rourke's final chapter explains succinctly.

E. Charles Nelson

Collins field guide to wildlife sounds, Britain and Ireland

[including an audio CD] Geoff Sample 2006. 95 pp., hardback.

Harper Collins, London.

ISBN 0 00 720906 1. Price ?14.99.

While many noises are irritating - like that of a convoy of concrete mixers rumbling by on their

way to despoil more Irish countryside - it is cheering to read a book on natural sounds. The CD, which

accompanies this book, and tucks neatly inside the cover, provides a critical companion to the text. This book is about sounds made by wildlife, "covers all identifiable species" it says on the cover, and it sets out to be a general guide to what can be heard in the British and Irish countryside. There are two other similar titles on bird songs and calls by the same author and publisher.

There is a very informative text with clear everyday expressions in which the science and

technology involved is explained -

rarely have I come across so lucid a text. The CD, which I listened to in a car, drowned out the concrete mixers nicely and is well put together with informative comments. The

author, who hails from the North of England, has added useful snippets between the recordings. I

particularly like the fact that many of the recordings are not 'clean' but have one or two species sounds, as happens in the real world. I always thought 'Yaffle', as an onomatopoeic word for green woodpecker,

was a local Sussex name - green woodpeckers being very common in Sussex due to the well-wooded

Weald - however, the author implies that this is more widespread in England, which I found interesting. There is little effort to inform the Irish reader, or listener; they would listen for a woodpecker or

death watch beetle in vain, although the absence of tawny owls in Ireland is noted. While there are a few notes on the Irish occurrence of crickets there could have been more information. For the record, oak bush and speckled bush crickets are widespread, but local here and three other species are found: dark bush cricket, Roesel's bush cricket and the short-winged conehead, and the latter three may be introduced (Tony Nagle, pers. comm.).

Then there is the "covers all identifiable species" tag which the book does not; there are no

recordings of most of the species of whales, dolphins and bats but these can be found elsewhere

nowadays. However, having noted these two drawbacks, I would recommend this book and would hope an expanded and more complete second edition might follow in due course.

Paddy Sleeman

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