Joel Ellis Holloway

As the title implies, this is simply a listing of all the birds of America, in alphabetical order by Latin name. Useful to biology geeks who don't care much about common names of animals, but probably a disappointing book for 90% of bird fans. The emphasis is on the etymological origins of each Latin or Greek part of a name.

Sample entry, with asterisks used to indicate italics:
*Bucephala clangula* (Common Goldeneye)
SCIENTIFIC NAME *Bucephala* + *clangula*, a small noise, a diminutive of the Latin *clangor*, noise. Reference is to the sound of the wingbeats in flight.
COMMON NAME Common, for its wide distribution. Goldeneye, has yellow irises.

There are some ("more than 25") handsome black & white line drawings.
From the blurb: "With more than 900 entries, all the resident birds of the 50 states are included, as well as escaped, exotic and rare visitors." And "The dictionary is the only work of its kind that brings the derivation of scientific bird names back to the original Greek."… (meer)