This book reminds me of decathlon athletes; extraordinary sportspeople overall, excelling in a number of events, but they don't stand a chance against champs dedicated to a single event!

The Photoguide is, indeed, superb on the whole, covering an exceptionally broad subject matter, including mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians, butterflies and moths, other insects, spiders, slugs and snails, coastal and marine animals, fish, trees, flowering plants and grasses from all round the Mediterranean.

And the choice of subjects is really outstanding, as it contains the vast majority of species likely to be seen by a casual naturalist on vacation. However, if you're interested in a particular subject area, then you'd be better off looking for an other guide.

I particularly like the intro to the book, which includes an in-depth overview of Mediterranean habitats and the prevailing flora and fauna associated with them, as well as a chapter entitled "The Mediterranean Wildlife Year", which describes the flowers and animals you can expect to encounter during each season. On the other hand, I think that descriptive texts - which provide a description of each species, as well as info on habitat and distribution - are too brief.

Contents:

• Introduction
• Mammals
• Birds
• Reptiles
• Amphibians
• Butterflies
• Moths
• Other Insects
• Dragonflies
• Damselflies
• Flies, Wasps and Bees
• Wasps, Bees, Ants and Beetles
• Insects and Other Invertebrates
• Spiders and Allies
• Slugs and Terrestrial and Freshwater Snails
• Coastal and Marine Plants and Animals
• Coastal and Marine Animals
• Fish
• Trees
• Palms and Climbers
• Wild Flowers
• Grasses
• Lower Plants
• Glossary
• Further Reading
• Index

As mentioned earlier, the book's strongest point is the excellent choice of subjects, which makes it an overall valuable aid. However, the binding is really terrible© The book came apart on me a couple of days after I had purchased it, without having gone on any field trips!

The soft-cover book, which I own, consists of 384 pages and contains around 1,500 photographs of every imaginable animal or plant species.

Click on the thumbnails below to view images of the cover and inside pages.

To order the book online, kindly follow this link to amazon.co.uk. Thanks again for looking and happy nature watching!

Top