Alexander F. Skutch - Böcker

Western Books Exhibition, Rounce and Coffin ClubAntbirds and ovenbirds, two of the five largest families of birds found only in the Western Hemisphere, have been among Alexander Skutch's favorites for more than six decades. In this book, he draws on years of observations to describe the life cycle of these fascinating birds, which inhabit Latin America from tropical Mexico to Tierra del Fuego.Skutch covers all aspects of the birds' lives, including the various species in each family, food and foraging, daily life, voice, displays and courtship, nests and incubation, and parental care. He also recounts anecdotes from his own experiences, creating vivid pictures of antbirds foraging for the insects Skutch stirs up on walks through the rainforest and of ovenbirds repairing the observation holes that he opens in their elaborate nests.As some of tropical America's least studied birds, antbirds and ovenbirds surely merit the extensive treatment given them here by one of our most distinguished senior ornithologists. Over fifty line drawings by noted bird artist Dana Gardner make this book a delight for both armchair and field naturalists.

A Naturalist in Costa Rica picks up Alexander Skutch's story when he went to that country in 1935, the year ""The Imperative Call"" ends. There his dream of establishing a permanent homestead in the unspoiled tropical forest of Central America in time became the reality of a simple farmhouse in the Valley of El General. The book records his life, work, observations and reflections during 35 years in that southern Pacific portion of Costa Rica. First published in 1971 (and long out of print), the book expresses a personal concern for spiritual and ecological balance that continues to engage us in the final decade of the 20th century. Appendices contain an annotated list, updated for this edition by the author, of more than 300 species of birds that he has identified near his home, an up-to-date bibliography of his writings, and a list of his awards and honours.

Alexander Skutch portrays his life as an intrepid naturalist in his own personal style. This autobiography and natural history recounts his early years growing up in Maryland and Maine and his adventures in Central America and Jamaica during the 1920s and 1930s, when he began his studies of nesting birds, well before modernisation affected the region. It weaves precise descriptions of tropical plant, bird, and animal life into personal philosophy about man and nature. The book ends with the author's arrival in Costa Rica, in the then remote valley where he has lived since 1935.

From blackbirds and orioles to meadowlarks, grackles, and cowbirds, the variety and variation shown by members of the family Icteridae is legend. The family exhibits great diversity in size and coloration, mating and nest building, and habits and habitats. This group of 94 New World species once known as the troupials is well represented in backyards across America; yet most icterids are tropical or semi-tropical species that remain largely unstudied. The least known of these species are perhaps best known to Alexander Skutch, who has studied birds in a Costa Rican tropical valley for more than half a century. In this fascinating book--the first devoted exclusively to the icterids--he combines his own observations with those of other naturalists to provide a comparative natural history and biology of this remarkable family of birds. Devoting a separate chapter to each major group or genus, he delineates the outstanding characteristics of each and includes observations of little-studied tropical species such as caciques and oropendolas. Orioles, Blackbirds, and Their Kin is an eminently readable natural history in the classic style.Enhanced by 31 scratchboard illustrations, this book will delight nature enthusiasts everywhere with its fascinating exposition of avian diversity. Because so much of the published information on the icterids is widely scattered, Skutch's painstaking compilation has created a valuable reference work that will provide students and researchers with a wealth of new insights into the tropical members of this New World family.

First Published in 1970, The Golden Core of Religion develops the view that religion’s chief contribution to humanity has been its capacity to care deeply about things. More than any other institutions, it has encouraged men to care- for self, for neighbours, for the varied life around us, for the natural world that supports us. The golden core of religion is devoted care. Several chapters are concerned with the various forms of caring in primitive and advanced religions and religious philosophies, Eastern and Western. Religion likewise deserves our gratitude for fostering our highest aspirations such as that for a blessed life established upon true goodness- even if it cannot assure the fulfillment of these aspirations.In the two concluding chapters, the author develops his own religious views. In our growing appreciation of this splendour and wonder of the cosmos and deepening sense of responsibility for the preservation of the beauty and health of our planet, he discerns an essentially religious attitude, a new form of religion spontaneously taking shape, without, as yet a name or organization. This is a must read for scholars and researchers of religion.