Deserts (Audubon Society Nature Guides) (Paperback)

by James Macmahon (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
This essential guidebook to the North American deserts, one in a distinguished Audubon Society series devoted to continental biomes, contains in outline just about all the natural-history information a desert rat will need in the field. Drawing on the expertise of ornithologists, botanists, mammalogists, herpetologists, and other scientists across the country, editor James MacMahon offers an account of desert ecology, followed by life histories of characteristic flora and fauna, range maps, and illustrations. Of particular interest are MacMahon's notes on Native American uses of indigenous plants and animals. --Gregory McNamee

Product Description
A comprehensive field guide, fully illustrated with color photographs, to the wildflowers, insects, birds, reptiles and other natural wonders of North America's deserts, from Oregon to Mexico.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 638 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; Chanticleer Press ed edition (May 12, 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0394731395
• ISBN-13: 978-0394731391
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #143,596 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Guide for the Field, May 30, 2000

By	Ray Quay "quayray" (Arizona, United States) - See all my reviews

When I moved to Arizona from the Texas in 1988, I was given this guide as a gift. Now 12 years later the book is a lot more worn, but is still an indespensible part of my hiking gear. It is small in size and ruggedly bound, so is perfect for short and long hikes into the Arizona Desert. It provides a guide for plants (cacti, grasses, wildflowers, shrubs, trees) reptiles, amphibians (do not see much of these), insects, spiders, mamals, and birds. It has suscinct quarter to half page descriptions of each species (or genus)including a description, habitat, range, and interesting comments. The best part is that the color pictures are in a separate section, group by type above, with a reference to the page where a full description can be found. This is great when you are on the trail, see something and want to pull out the guide an quickly find a reference. You can either use its quick photo index (fruit hsape, bird shape) to go to a section of the photos, or more oftent go straight to the section of interest (i.e birds, etc) and quickly thumb through the pictures to find what you saw, then turn to the reference. It also has "readable: sections on each of the major US desert areas whihc you can read at leisure. The only two weak points I have found are the section on birds and references to non-desert parts of Arizona. Arizona is a major transit point for birds migrating north and south. Sometimes these "visitors" to Arizona are not listed. The Sonoran desert is also more than just flat land desert. It also incudes the "sky Island" mountains that spring up from the desert floor. This book provides a reference only so far up these "islands" and a second is really needed when hiking between the two.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Audubon Society Nature Guides - Deserts, November 21, 2002

By	Karyn (Lake Havasu City, AZ United States) - See all my reviews

A must have book for anyone hiking in the desert and anyone even just interested in the desert. Packed full of info about "everything" you will find in the desert .

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A GREAT field guide!, December 2, 1999

By	Kelly Hardwicke "kellyh55" (San Diego, CA) - See all my reviews

Don't be fooled by the negative review displayed here! This field guide is really great. I worked as a parks Natural Reasources employee, and part of my job was identifying every plant and animal I came across, if I could. Now, no one field guide will ever have everything you need, but good field guides contain many entries, good descriptions of likely habitats as well as the organism itself, a concentration on the plants and animals one is actually likely to find as opposed to those that are incredibly rare or not likely to be located in whatever ecosystem you bought the book for, and helpful hints with those species whose identification is notoriously difficult or easily confused. This book has it ALL, and more, such as the wide range of organisms featured, beautiful color plates, and supplementary information about deserts. If you find this book hard to use in the winter, it may be because plant identification in the winter is ALWAYS much harder than during flowering and growing seasons. This is because flowers are not only the number one organ used to identify flowering plants, they are also used extremely frequently to classify them into different species in the first place! If you want the most desert field guide for your dollar (or other monetary unit) this is definately your book.