“Dem’s Fightin’ Birds”
Larry Frolick
pp. 17-20

Guyana’s exotic bird population is a cause for both celebration and concern. The government of Guyana cheerily promotes birds, from the red-eyed Hoatzin to the mohawk-sporting Guianan Cock-of-the-Rock, as a major tourist attraction. Birds of Guyana, by Balram Singh and Robert Fernandes (Oxford: Macmillan, 2004), is a fine print introduction to Guyana’s wide variety of winged species.

Unfortunately, many of these beautiful birds, including seed-finches, are part of an illegal trade network. Traffic, a wildlife trade-monitoring network, has published the authoritative work on the subject: Perceptions, Conservation and Management of Wild Birds in Trade (Cambridge: Traffic, 1992). There’s a chapter on Guyana, and other primary bird-exporting countries—Argentina, Indonesia, and Senegal—are also discussed individually.

Activist sites addressing the illegal bird trade are easy to find. Many of them refer to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), an international agreement adopted in 1973, currently with 169 signatories, which aims to ensure that international trade of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival.


“Against the Grain”
Megan Williams
pp. 20-21

If Megan Williams’ field note made your mouth water, head to ochef.com for links to some fabulous couscous recipes. While “Warm-Weather Couscous,” with its combination of summer vegetables, may not be quite right for February in Canada, you could always use it to justify your winter vacation!

Near a Thousand Tables: A History of Food (New York: Free Press, 2002), by Felipe Fernández-Armesto, charts the changing role of food in shaping societies. As Fernández-Armesto explains, globalization (partly responsible for phenomena like couscous festivals in Italy) is only the latest of many revolutions that have altered our relationship to food. This is a lucid and enthusiastic text, with enough wit and insight to carry readers through its almost three hundred pages.

Should your curiosity be more specific to Italy, Anna Del Conte’s The Concise Gastronomy of Italy (New York: Pavilion, 2004) combines recipes and cooking tips with cultural history in a colorful package full of photos, diagrams, and maps. Del Conte goes well beyond spaghetti and pizza, introducing readers to the great variety and subtlety of real Italian cooking.