Briefly Noted    

Alumni/ae are urged to advise the Exonians in Review editor of their own publications, recordings, films, etc., in any field, and those of classmates. Whenever possible, authors and composers are encouraged to send one copy of their books and original copies of articles to Edouard Desrochers '45 (Hon.), the Editor of Exonians in Review, Phillips Exeter Academy, 20 Main Street, Exeter, NH 03833. Alumni/ae interested in reviewing works by fellow Exonians are also encouraged to contact the editor at the same address, or by email at edesrochers@exeter.edu.

Alumni/ae     

1924–Alton P. Walker. Six in a Flivver. (Dorrance Publishing Co., 2002)

1943–Gore Vidal. Dreaming War: Blood for Oil and the Cheney-Bush Junta. (Thunder's Mouth Press, 2002)

1945–Henry B. Shepard Jr. The Perry Family of Norton and the Nine Gardners, by Frances Dudley Shepard, Edited by H.B. Shepard Jr. (Randolph Hill Press, 2002)

1961–John Irving. The Imaginary Girlfriend: A Memoir. (Ballantine Books, 2002)

1963–David Kovacs. Euripides: Helen/ Phoenician Women/ Orestes. (Harvard University Press, 2002)

1967–Theodore M. Folke. East Timor: Betrayal and Resurrection, a film by Theodore Folke. [VHS] (Samba Project, 2001)

1969–Robert M. Rubin. Jean Prouvé: Three Nomadic Structures. [Catalog of an exhibition at the Arthur Ross Gallery, April 12-May 10, 2002] (Columbia University, 2002)

1970–Robert F. Bauer. Soft Money, Hard Law: A Guide to the New Campaign Finance Law. (Perkins Coie, 2002)

1975–Neil Harvey. Bioneers: Revolution From the Heart of Nature II [13-part, half-hour documentary series], N. Harvey, series producer. (New Dimensions Radio, 2002)

1976–Thomas Borstelmann and others. Created Equal: A Social and Political History of the United States. (Longman, 2003)

1979–John Granger. The Hidden Key to Harry Potter: Understanding the Meaning, Genius, and Popularity of Joanne Rowling's Harry Potter Novels. (Zossima Press, 2002)

1983–Brooks Hansen. The Monsters of St. Helena. (Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2003)

1983–J. Douglas Smith. Managing White Supremacy: Race, Politics, and Citizenship in Jim Crow Virginia. (University of North Carolina Press, 2002)

1984–Caleb Barber and Deirdre Heekin. Pane e Salute: Food and Love in Italy and Vermont. (Invisible Cities Press, 2002)

1985–Gregory D.S. Anderson and David Harrison. A Grammar of Tuvan. (SCSI Publications, 2002)

–– and David Harrison. Tuvan-English and English-Tuvan Dictionary with Grammatical Notes. (Lincom Europa, 2002)

1992–Jedediah Purdy. Being America: Liberty, Commerce, and Violence in an American World. (Knopf, 2003)

1994–Molly Gilford. The Official Hottie Hunting Field Guide. (American Hottieologists' Association, 2002)

2000–Tucker Dawson and Christopher O'Donnell and Lawson Feltman. Alrighty. [CD] (Melodian Productions LLC, 2002)

Briefly Noted     

1951–Paul F. Hughes. "Greenland and the Winnicut River" IN Cross-Grained & Wily Waters: A Guide to the Piscataqua Maritime Region, Edited by W. Jeffrey Bolster. (Peter Randall, 2002)

1966–Jeffrey Haydn Taylor. "Foreword," "Lifesaving in the Piscataqua Region," "A Short Row From Portsmouth to Revolution," "Lighthouses of the Piscataqua" IN Cross-Grained & Wily Waters: A Guide to the Piscataqua Maritime Region, Edited by Jeffrey Bolster. (Peter Randall, 2002)

1969–Daniel J. Hoffheimer and Joshua A. Shapiro. "Expanding the Rights of Creditors to Nonprobate Property: A Sensible Proposal to Close Ohio's Antiquated Loopholes." IN Probate Law Journal of Ohio. (Nov./Dec. 2002, v. 13, no. 2)

1970–Nicholas H. Caskey and others. "Modulating Tobacco Smoking Rates by Dopaminergic Stimulation and Blockade." IN Nicotine & Tobacco Research. (2002, 4, 259-266)

1972–Martha B. (Gerson) Lufkin. "Whistling Past the Graveyard Isn't Enough: U.S. May Seek to Confiscate Painting Lent by Austrian Museum Which Allegedly Knew It Was Nazi Loot." IN Art Antiquity and Law. (v. 7, no. 3, Sept. 2002)

1976–Thomas Borstelmann. "The United States and the Final Years of White Rule in Zimbabwe." [review of From the Barrel of a Gun, by Gerald Horne, and Black, White, and Chrome, by Andrew DeRoche.] IN Diplomatic History (v. 27, no. 1 Jan., 2003)

1981–Claudia Putnam. "Montana Granite" [a poem] IN Penumbra, 2002

––. "In Garnet Canyon," [short story] IN GWReview

1985–Rachel Carpenter. "The Qualifications of Regina White." [short story] IN One Story magazine. (Sept. 16, 2002)

1988–Jason Antrosio. "Inverting Development Discourse in Colombia: Transforming Andean Hearths." IN American Anthropologist (v. 104, no. 4, Dec. 2002)

1990–Dominic Rivers and Timothy DeSchriver. "Star Players, Payroll Distribution and Major League Baseball Attendance." IN Sport Marketing Quarterly (v. 11, no. 3, Fall 2002)

Faculty     

Dolores Kendrick. "Brooksian Poetic Elegance in Maud Martha." IN Gwendolyn Brooks' Maud Martha: A Critical Collection. Edited by Jacqueline K. Bryant. (Third World Press, 2002)

Laura Moriarty [2000-01 George Bennett Fellow]. The Center of Everything. (Hyperion, 2003)

Bird Tracks and Sign: A Guide to North American Species, by Mark Elbroch '90 (Stackpole Books) with Eleanor Marks, is a valuable addition to a birder's library; it also provides fascinating information to nonbirders. While most birding guides cover only visual and auditory identification of species, Elbroch discusses seven different methods of identification: tracks, pellets, droppings, feeding and other behaviors, nests and roosts, feathers, and skulls.

The first, and perhaps most useful, is tracks. Elbroch proposes a formal way to approach all tracks, using both descriptions of the anatomy of birds' feet and measurements of different species' tracks. A bird track is identified by which of the five different kinds of bird feet the track shows, as well as the bird's manner of movement: walking, running, hopping or skipping. The book provides photos of many species' tracks, showing both an enlarged single track from each foot and a smaller photo of the tracks left by the bird in a medium such as mud, snow or sand.

In his book Bird Tracks and Sign, Mark Elbroch '90 not only offers a variety of ways to identify common North American species, but also makes a compelling case for preserving their habitat.

When I began reading this book, the snow on the ground around our house was several weeks old and frozen, so only heavy creatures left any imprint. Several days later, however, we received three inches of new powdery snow, perfect for finding new tracks. Thanks to Elbroch, I could successfully identify the tracks of two of the species that frequent our feeders.

While most of the book focuses on a single species at a time, comments relating to multiple species are interspersed throughout on subjects such as "high stepping," a mating behavior observed in members of the plover family. For example, studies of the tracks of piping plovers (an endangered species) can indicate whether the bird was exhibiting breeding behavior (with the likelihood of nearby nesting), feeding or defending his or her territory.

The inside covers contain quick-reference charts of track lengths by species, along with a page reference for the photograph showing that species' track. My only complaint is that this useful chart is ordered by the page numbers of the photos, rather than either alphabetically by species or in the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) taxonomic order familiar to most birders.

Pellets are primarily useful for identifying the presence of owls and raptors. Birds do not have teeth, so their stomachs must do most of the work of breaking down and digesting what they eat. Some parts of the food, however, cannot be digested and are expelled from the bird's mouth as a pellet when it is next ready to hunt or feed. Pellets are covered with mucus and composed of food remnants, such as bones, fur, fish scales, and seed and nut sheaths. While most birds' pellets are so small as to be barely noticeable, owl and raptor pellets are often an inch or more in size. One fascinating picture compares equal-size pellets of a great horned owl and a red-tailed hawk. Because the red-tail hawk tears its prey into small pieces as it eats, its pellet contains only very small bones; the owl's pellet, by contrast, has bigger and more readily identifiable bones (including whole skulls), because the owl both eats his prey whole and has weaker stomach acid.

The section on "Feeding and Other Behaviors" provides more clues for identifying birds. For example, different bird species open acorns in different ways (as do several mammals). The pattern of disturbance of a thistle flower can indicate an American goldfinch has been feeding on it, while two similar small woodpeckers, the hairy and the downy, leave different patterns on a tree or shrub on which they have been drilling for insects.

I was very interested in the description of dust baths, after I watched a pair of black-throated green warblers stretch out in the dirt in my garden last summer. While I had never witnessed this kind of behavior before, it is quite normal, according to Elbroch, particularly in areas where water is scarce (as it was in the Northeast last summer). Bathing in water or dust is essential for plumage maintenance, as well as for eliminating parasites.

The chapter on nests and roosts, written jointly by the two authors, discusses different kinds of nests. Other than nests scraped out in dirt or sand (usually made by shorebirds and terns), most nests are constructed of a variety of materials. Twigs, grass and other natural and manmade materials are employed, and mud is a common ingredient to help hold everything together. Some birds, such as robins, build new nests each year, while others, such as ospreys and bald eagles, reuse the same nest for decades.

A large section of the book is devoted to feathers, which are much more complex than I had suspected, with feathers "hooking" into each other to maintain a bird's ability to retain warmth and fly. By preening, cleaning, oiling and rearranging its feathers, a bird can almost "reconstruct" its feathers, an essential component of its ability to fly, float, regulate body heat and survive. Different feathers are designed to support different functions. For example, the tail feathers of a woodpecker are designed to help brace the bird against the bark of a tree, supporting the weight of the bird from below. The pictures of bird feathers are astonishing and beautiful, with an endless array of colors and types.

Amidst the interesting facts he presents, though, Elbroch does something else as well: he makes a clear case for land conservation, urging people to consider their impact on wildlife. Summarizing the statistics of bird mortality in the United States, he writes: ".every year an estimated 500 million birds are killed by domestic cats, 80 million in collisions with windows, 57 million by motorists, and 1.2 million by television towers. . Many birds are also strangled by fishing line or the plastic rings from six-packs, oiled, or choked by swallowing clear plastic bags. . When we consider human-caused mortalities and loss of habitat as well, it is no wonder that populations of certain species are plummeting around the country."

A fascinating and valuable book, Bird Tracks and Sign makes a strong argument for paying careful attention to the world around us.