Abstract
The color, heft, texture and smell of l 'b~ks are satisfying. The grandest mansion is barren without a library but the humblest home is peopled with real friends if good books cover even part of one wall. These are friends you can listen to, argue with, learn from and return to. These friends can be from any part of the world, any culture, any language and any time in history. And they share with you their knowledge, thoughts, feelings and philosophies. Good books, these magnificent friends, are so much more than just the sum of their contents. They are reflections of humankind - some soothing, some annoying, some humble, some arrogant, some true, some false, none perfect.
I love to be in the midst of these good friends. And it is from this position that I review and evaluate new books I meet. In this instance, the book is A Monograph of Macaws and Conures by Tony Silva with paintings by Eric Peake, published by Silvio Mattacchione & Co., 1793 Rosebanks Rd. N., Pickering, Ontario LlV1P5, Canada, telephone 905-831-1373, Fax 905-831-3734. There are two editions. The Remarque Edition is limited to 50 copies only - ever. It is for serious collectors who feel about books as I do and are willing to invest $2,500. Contact the publisher for more information if you're interested in this edition.
The Subscribers Edition, which I have in my hands, is limited to 2,000 copies worldwide and costs $175. It is this edition we'll look at.
A Monograph of Macaws and Conures by Tony Silva is a large, heavy volume 13-1/4 inches high by 9 inches wide by 1-1/4 inches thick. It will go on your coffee table or upon the shelves reserved for large books. It is black, bound in cloth and looks very much like Silva's 1989 Monograph of Endangered Parrots. Indeed, they'd make a handsome pair in anyone's library.
Earlier, I mentioned that, like friends, books can carry on a conversation with you. This is especially true in this volume. Silva converses with the reader. He relates a number of personal experiences and voices his personal opinions on things from classification to bird trade. He talks to you about purchasing a bird, the role of aviculture in conservation, husbandry of macaws and conures, incubation, handrearing and a number of other things. In fact, each of these subjects has a full chapter devoted to it.
In these chapters, the depth and breadth of Silva's experience comes out. He has devoted the past 20 years or so exclusively to aviculture and to the study of parrots in particular. When he speaks of bird trade, he
takes you with him to the bumpy, reddirt road deep in Argentina where he is in the hands of "Beto," a local collector and trapper of parrots. Silva presents a vivid description of bouncing along dusty roads in an old pickup truck, of going from village to village some soothing, some annoying, some humble, some arrogant, some true, some false, none perfect.
I love to be in the midst of these good friends. And it is from this position that I review and evaluate new books I meet. In this instance, the book is A Monograph of Macaws and Conures by Tony Silva with paintings by Eric Peake, published by Silvio Mattacchione & Co., 1793 Rosebanks Rd. N., Pickering, Ontario LlV1P5, Canada, telephone 905-831-1373, Fax 905-831-3734. There are two editions. The Remarque Edition is limited to 50 copies only - ever. It is for serious collectors who feel about books as I do and are willing to invest $2,500. Contact the publisher for more information if you're interested in this edition.
The Subscribers Edition, which I have in my hands, is limited to 2,000 copies worldwide and costs $175. It is this edition we'll look at.
A Monograph of Macaws and Conures by Tony Silva is a large, heavy volume 13-1/4 inches high by 9 inches wide by 1-1/4 inches thick. It will go on your coffee table or upon the shelves reserved for large books. It is black, bound in cloth and looks very much like Silva's 1989 Monograph of Endangered Parrots. Indeed, they'd make a handsome pair in anyone's library.
Earlier, I mentioned that, like friends, books can carry on a conversation with you. This is especially true in this volume. Silva converses with the reader. He relates a number of personal experiences and voices his personal opinions on things from classification to bird trade. He talks to you about purchasing a bird, the role of aviculture in conservation, husbandry of macaws and conures, incubation, handrearing and a number of other things. In fact, each of these subjects has a full chapter devoted to it.
In these chapters, the depth and breadth of Silva's experience comes out. He has devoted the past 20 years or so exclusively to aviculture and to the study of parrots in particular. When he speaks of bird trade, he
takes you with him to the bumpy, reddirt road deep in Argentina where he is in the hands of "Beto," a local collector and trapper of parrots. Silva presents a vivid description of bouncing along dusty roads in an old pickup truck, of going from village to village where many of the palm shacks contain cardboard boxes of nestling parrots being handfed. Silva is one of the few aviculturists who has actually travelled the world, met many bird trappers and observed the parrot trade from the wild nest to the quarantine station.
One learns just how important the parrot trade is to impoverished and desperate people in the third world countries. Many of them depend upon selling baby parrots for the majority of their annual income. Even when laws change and trade is banned, the activity goes on - parrots are smuggled.
Many of the native people have learned to harvest nestlings carefully, leaving at least one baby in the nest so the breeding pair will be successful and return the following year. Others use devastating methods.
From first-hand experience, Silva pinpointed a concept that is rarely considered by the purists and preservationists. The fact is, many indigenous people have two choices regarding their local wild parrots - eat them or sell them. I confess, this concept staggered me. This reality has to be taken into consideration when discussing conservation methods in plush boardrooms around the world.
I don't always agree with Silva, or any other author for that matter, but I appreciate the chance to exchange ideas. Silva has plenty of ideas and it's profitable to digest them, argue them, refute or refine them. This is one of the main purposes of a good book. I found the chapters on the bird trade and on the role of aviculture in conservation very good reading - thought provoking.
Please keep in mind now, that Silva is engaged in a lively conversation with the reader. He is voicing his own thoughts and ideas stemming out of his own personality and experience.
Indeed, it is interesting to watch how ideas change over the years. In his 1989 A Monograph of Endangered Parrots, Silva advocated pulling and handfeeding virtually all parrot chicks hatched in captivity. Now he expresses second thoughts. Jn the chap-
ter on handrearing, Silva suggests that the first clutch may be taken for handrearing but the second clutch might better be left for the parents to rear.