I recently had reason to work with the book "Pete Dunne's Essential Field Guide Companion" (Houghton Mifflin, 2006, $29.95), which I might have reviewed several months ago. Dunne's book is called a companion because it contains no illustrations. What you find is text expanding on the minimal information found in illustrated field guides. It is written is Dunne's thoroughly enjoyable, relaxed, and entertaining style. This is a scientific work dressed in Friday casual.
For instance, Dunne says that the Ruddy Turnstone, a shorebird, has a "cosmopolitan view of the planet." given its various migration routes: across the Pacific or down the North American west and east coasts, wintering from Great Britain to northwestern Africa, as well as in the south Pacific. He describes the bird's body as shaped "somewhat like a croissant." Digging in beach sand for food, Dunne says the turnstones "root like feathered pigs." This is not your usual field-guide style.
