What Bird is That?
| Author | Neville W. Cayley |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Neville W. Cayley |
| Cover artist | Neville W. Cayley |
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Australian birds |
| Genre | Field guide |
| Publisher | Angus & Robertson: Sydney; Australia's Heritage Publishing |
|
Publication date
|
1931 (1st edn); 2011 (Signature edn) |
| Media type | Print (hardcover) with dustjacket |
| Pages | xx + 320; 832pp 460 colour plates |
| ISBN |
What Bird is That? A Guide to the Birds of Australia is a book first published in 1931 by Angus & Robertson in Sydney. Authored and illustrated by Neville William Cayley, it was Australia’s first fully illustrated national field guide to birds, a function it served alone for nearly 40 years. In 1960 it was rated the all-time best seller in Australian natural history.
What Bird Is That? was originally published in octavo format (239 x 158 mm), containing 340 pages bound in green buckram, with a dust jacket illustrated with a painting of a laughing kookaburra seated on and within a large red question mark. It contains 36 coloured plates of paintings of Australian birds by the author, as well as several black-and-white photographic plates of habitat. There were numerous reprints and revised editions in various formats produced well into the 1980s.
The first edition was sponsored by the Gould League of Bird Lovers of New South Wales of which Cayley was a Council member. In return for its sponsorship, Cayley offered the Gould League four tenths of his 10% book royalty. However, initial sales were slow and in 1935 he sold his entire share to the League for £300.
The book was extolled fulsomely by S.R. Thomas, of the NSW Department of Education, as follows;
"What Bird is That? is the most comprehensive and informative bird book published in the Commonwealth – if not in the world. The coloured plates are a triumph not only of the genius and imagination of the artist – our own Neville Cayley on whom has fallen so fittingly the mantle of his famous father – but also of the block-maker’s and printer’s art. The publishers have done nothing finer of its kind.
The life-like portrayals of our feathered friends, together with the succinct but compendious descriptive information, will place within easy reach of the bird lover, a most valuable vade mecum of bird and bush lore for out of doors as well as a thing of beauty for the library."
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Wikipedia