The Lorimer Pocket Guide to London Birds

W.J. Keith is a retired professor of English at the University of Toronto and author A Sense of Style: Studies in the Art of Fiction in English-Speaking Canada.

These books (if the plural is legitimate) are designed essentially for
the beginning or casual birder. I shall enlarge on that statement
shortly, but it is necessary first to explain my parenthesis. Although
each book has a different title, cover, dedication, and ISBN number,
they are in fact identical with the exception of nine pages (8–16)
describing the most promising birding “hot spots” in each area,
where separate information is provided by local authorities.

Each book, then, presents identical information about 120 birds
commonly seen in the area of southern Ontario close to the cities in
question. The inadequacy of this procedure became obvious to me when I
noticed that, as a keen but by no means expert birder, I had seen 240
species—exactly double that number—in the Toronto area alone. To be
sure, most of the species one is likely to see on a regular basis are
present, though I was surprised at the omission of Black-crowned
Night-Heron, Red-breasted Merganser, Oldsquaw (Long-tailed Duck), Common
Goldeneye, Common Moorhen, and all terns. A serious difficulty, of
course, is that a common list will include birds not frequently seen in
one area but omit some likely to be encountered in only one of the
others. And there are further anomalies: thus the Hamilton volume
rightly recommends “Van Wagner’s Beach and Ponds” as a place to
“look for rare gulls”—but the reader will find only the common
ones in the book.

Each bird included is assigned a page containing basic information, and
the illustrations are reasonably faithful. On the other hand, the
difference in price between these volumes and the comprehensive and
vastly superior ROM Guide to the Birds of Ontario is little more than
seven dollars.

All in all, a curious piece of bookmaking.