Handbook of the Mammals of the World

I just got an email from Lynx Edicions that volume 6 has been pushed back.

 

Got the same email this morning. Oh well, it's not the end of the world.



Hix

 

For anyone that has ordered these volumes in the United States: about how long did it take to get to you? I'm ordering a few of the volumes this week and I am so excited to receive them!

 

Having received Vol 6 today, I can report that, despite having now split rodents over two volumes, this volume is still the thickest in the series so far (just shy of 1000 pages).

I'm now considering a temporary gym membership in order to facilitate getting it to and from the bookshelf without straining!

And no need to worry about illustration size (or, indeed, quality - with Toni Llobet once again doing a fine job).

 

New information concerning authors and families covered in volume 7 now on the Lynx website

 

The Lynx website advises that Volume 7 will be published in September. The special discount price is available until 31 August.

 

They are an amazing series! My favorite is volume 2 (Hoofed Mammals). The quality of the illustrations is incredible! I never get bored reading them.

 

Just saw on their website that Volume 7 has been pushed back until late October and the pre-publication offer extended until September 30th. I'm so disappointed

 

I don't think they ever produced any of the Handbook of the Birds/Mammals of the World on time.

 

That is disappointing but gives me some time to save money for this volume...

 

The pre-publication offer for Volume 7 extended today until October 31st and the publication of the book is expected to be at late November!

 

An update about the Volume 7 and some changes for whoever hasn't noticed them:

• The pre-publication offer expired at October 31st and the book is still to be published at late November, so, fortunately, there are no more delays.

Now, some editorial (and I hope no serious or frustrating to the whole text thoroughness and photo/illustrations quality and size) changes:

• The number of plates has changed from 62 to 58! Not such a big reduction but it could still affect the size of illustrations.
• The number of photos is around a hundred less (from c. 400 to c. 300).
• The number of species is now 1744 instead of 1749 (I don't think that it's a problem though, because the number of included rodent species has increased at +100 at least in the time between publication of Volume 6 and Volume 7)
• Also, for the first time in the series, there are different authors for the family text and species accounts for two of the families, Muridae and Cricetidae. (This is probably because of the vast number of species involved and could have also happened in some previous volume and just not mentioned).

I don't believe that those are such serious changes (except maybe for the number of plates), but they should probably be mentioned. Talking about the number of plates though, I am a bit worried about the size of illustrations. The first 8 plates are already given as samples (the 9th, Zapodidae, will have around 5 species so they surely will be good-sized) and their illustrations are good-sized. Now, if we assume that the rest 49 plates have equal number of species each, then this number will be around 32 sp./plate, a relatively large number of species in each one, something that surely will affect their size. Let's just hope that they will be, in terms of size, more like the 33 animals in the first plate of the nesomyids, which are good-sized, and not like the dendromyids of the second plate (although, have in mind that they are depicted along with the enormous -for a myomorph, pouched-rats).

 

The 7th Volume is finally available! According to their facebook announcement the distribution will start this week and will continue through December and January.

 

Mine arrived yesterday. So many mice!

 

And they are all so similar.

 

I wish that were true
I have a vivid memory of the Hispaniolan solenodon that I saw in Frankfurt in 1973, but I didn't even attempt a photo. I had a very limited quantity of Ektachrome-X film for uprating to 500 ASA/ISO and I had already taken photos of the banded linsang, grey-necked Picathartes and the tarsier a couple of exhibits before the solenodon. The enclosure was very dark and the solenodon was waddling around without a pause. I had to be careful because I particularly wanted to get some pictures of the gorillas and bonobos, and I had to keep some film for Cologne, Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Antwerp. So I moved on and missed my chance . . . .