NJAS: CD-Rom Reviews

One significant recent change in birding is the availability of instructional, listing, and travel audio tapes, video tapes, and CD-ROMs. These vary greatly in quality, and are often more expensive than books. Some are worth the extra cost, while others are not; and unlike books, you usually can not preview them before you buy. Thus, CMBO has asked me to review these items so it can offer you previews before you part with your hard earned money. We also hope these reviews (as well as your feedback) will lead to improved products. As such, it is my intent to provide reasoned comments (not to flame producers), and to look at the products reviewed from a perspective that will hopefully encourage the production of better birding products. To accomplish these objectives, I will rate each on a scale of 0 (truly worthless) to 10 (the limit of human ability), with half step increments. (The extreme ratings will necessarily be used very rarely.) I also envision a rating of 5 as a product that may or may not, depending upon your perspective, be worth purchasing (other than at a very inexpensive price.) However, there may be products I rate below 5 that could be of potential interest to a limited audience. Thus, I may recommend these with limitations.

The amount of detail in these reviews will vary. Some products contain relatively little content. As such, they can be reviewed in great detail. Others are much more complex and contain large amounts of material. These cannot be reviewed in as great detail without authoring a book, which would render the reviews functionally useless as virtually no one, would read them. However, because these reviews are on the web I can offer significantly greater detail than would be possible in magazines or newsletters. It also permits me to update and/or add to them as time and circumstances warrant, and to provide basic operating instructions which, if provided at all, are almost always done via the products "Help" program. I believe this last point is important because many people are not accustomed to using "Help" programs, which all too often results in their not fully exploring the products they purchase.

I recognize that these reviews offer but one person's opinion (even though I often discuss the products with others). I also recognize that, regardless of the degree of expertise I may (or may not) have, there are many who know significantly more than I. Thus, for better or worse, I offer my thoughts and, more importantly (I hope), the reasons for them.

Finally, if my efforts are to be as successful as I hope, I will need your feedback. Thus, please let us know what you think and why, keeping in mind that the most helpful comments are well reasoned.

The CD-ROM Guide to All the Birds of Europe (BoE) is a five disc program and by far the most comprehensive instructional bird program I have seen to date. It offers multiple illustrations (photos and sketches), range maps, videos, vocalizations, quizzes, commentary, and a number of other features. Its two drawbacks are its cost (about $250.00) and the fact that it is a five disc program; both of which are (so far as I can see) unavoidable in a product this encyclopedic.

BoE is designed to operate on Windows 95, 98, or NT (but can be operated on Windows 3.x or a Macintosh via a separate installer), and requires at least 8 MB of RAM. No other hardware requirements are noted. However, you will probably have little trouble it you use a computer purchased new in the last year or two.

As a multi-disc program, BoE requires you to select the disc containing the species you wish to explore. When you start the program, a multi-function screen is displayed, the majority of which is occupied by your choice of 1 or 4 images of one species, or 2 images each of two species. To the right are a series of "thumb-nails", small images that can be enlarged by clicking them. To the top are "thumb-nails" of related species which, if clicked, take you to those species. Just below and to the right of the upper "thumb-nails" is the word "Features" via which you can access a variety of sub-routines discussed below. To the upper right are icons via which you can hear vocalizations (or analogous sounds such as drumming in the case of woodpeckers). By moving the cursor to the left, you access a scroll-down list of all the birds covered by the five discs. If you have chosen the side-by-side option, moving the cursor to the right accesses a list for birds to be displayed there.

Once you have selected one or two species, choose whether you want to view one enlarged or four smaller images of one species; or two side-by-side comparisons of two species. The images include range maps, videos, sketches, and/or photos, depending upon the species selected. To change species, either click an icon of a species shown above the larger images, or move your cursor to the left (or right in the side-by-side mode) to accesses the species lists. At the top is scroll-down list that allows you to display the birds taxonomically, alphabetically, or by family. Below this is the selected format from which you select a species. Click on the species to access it.

Unless you have chosen the side-by-side option, moving the cursor to the bottom of the screen displays various textual materials discussing identification, voice, subspecies, sexing, ageing, diet, habitat, nests, eggs, migration, distribution in the UK and Europe, and any notes you may have entered. (As noted. this is a truly encyclopedic program!) To hear various vocalizations, click the desired icon at the upper right of the screen. (An apparent "typo" exists in the Little Gull display. The Vocalization icon is labeled "commentary" - discussed below - but clicking it still accesses the vocalization. Perhaps this was included just to demonstrate that the authors are mortal.)

The sub-routines available via the "Features" button include: Bird Quiz, What Bird was That?, List Maker, Lists from Maps, Bird Log, Captions, Bird File, Commentary, Help, Preferences, and About the CD-ROM Guide.

Bird Quiz generally requires you to select a medium and bird group such as videos/seabirds; calls/warblers; sounds/larks, chats, etc.; or songs and calls/waders. (However, you can also choose from four random selections: sounds, pictures, movie freeze frames, and anything.) The former groups contain 10 multiple choice questions in 5 minutes, while the latter contain 20 in 10 minutes (but may require you to change discs). Up to five people can play. Your score and how long it took you to complete the quiz are given at the end. However, you should get all correct as you can keep guessing until you get the right answer.

What Bird was that? Is intended to help you identify a species. This is done by having you select various options which results in a list of potential candidate species. The options are location (Britain or Ireland, Northern Europe, or Southern Europe); type of bird (waterbird, landbird, or shorebird); family (Divers/Loons, Grebes, Swans, Geese, Ducks, Gulls, Auks, None of these, Don't know); Size (a sliding centimeter scale with various examples such as Little grebe at 20 cm and Canada Goose at 95 cm); Colour (select one or more body parts and choose the appropriate color(s)); and Other Features or Behavior (15 choices including up-curved bill to up-ending to feed). You then double click on the species in the resultant list to look at it. Unfortunately, What Bird was That? suffers from the inherent problem of all such sub-routines. It is dependent upon and the disc authors describing the bird in the same way. This may sound simple; even obvious. However, it all too often results in either a list too long to be useful or a short list not including the species you saw.

List Maker allows you to create and print your own lists. However, do not confuse this sub-routine with a listing program. The difference is that List Maker can do no more than generate the names of the species on your list while a listing program can create and generate various lists (species names) and reports (names plus additional information) depending upon the program you are using and the data you have entered). List Maker also allows you to create specialized lists which can then be accessed in Bird Log, discussed below.

List from Maps is a feature I have not seen on any other program. It opens to a map of Europe, Iceland, and southeastern Greenland. You highlight one or more spots and select one to four categories (summer species, winter species, passage species, and/or sporadic breeding species). You are then presented with a list of all the species satisfying the selected criteria.

Bird Log is a basic listing program. You enter data by identifying an observer, a place, a date, and the birds identified. As noted, you can create your own lists via List Maker, or use one of the pre-defined lists: British & Irish, Common British, Dutch, European, Garden, Swedish, or Western Palearctic. You also can add a grid references and trip notes. You next enter the number of individuals of the species seen and comments about each sighting. You can enter an actual number, or a symbol for a number range. For example, as implied by the authors: +++ can mean a lot of birds, ++ can mean a medium number, and + can mean a few. You can also define and enter various other symbols that may help you create reports. For example, you can use * to denote significant sightings, F for female, M for male, etc. To generate reports, you enter the designed criteria, and generate your report. As such, Bird Log is the best listing feature I have seen in an instructional program, but is not intended to compete with listing programs such as AviSys, BirdBase/BirdArea, Thayer's Bird's Diary, etc. I suspect that birders interested in BoE would want a stand alone listing program as the good ones can do more than it would be realistic to expect from Bird Log.

Captions is a feature that, when activated, provides written, on-screen descriptions for each drawn illustration.

Bird File accesses the above noted textual material on each species: identification, voice, subspecies, sexing, ageing, diet, habitat, nests, eggs, migration, distribution in the UK and Europe, and any notes you may have entered.

Commentary, in my opinion, is the item that separates BoE from all other identification CD-ROMs I have seen to date. It provides narrated discussions of each species with videos, photos, illustrations, and range maps. The discussions include how to separate the species from similar birds, descriptions of their songs (without, for some reason, using the recordings available elsewhere on BoE), and where and when they occur.

Help is a standard, and quite functional, section via which to trouble shoot problems. However, you are not likely to have to use it often as much of BoE is essentially intuitive. The only time I used it was to get a better understanding of how to Bird Log. This is not surprising as this section is a basic listing program, and these are necessarily more complicated than purely instructional programs. (As noted above, Bird Log, as good as it is, should not be viewed as a substitute for a dedicated listing program.)

Preferences allows you to chose or ignore certain options. You can have either the use of common or scientific names; and any combination of: Change images as commentary plays, play video from temporary hard drive file, automatically loop all video sequences, save configuration on exit, and warn of 256 colours on start up.

The CD-ROM Guide to All the Birds of Europe (BoE) is not perfect, but it is clearly the current leader in bird identification CD-ROMs. On a scale of 0 (truly worthless) to 10 (the outer limit of human ability), I rate this product an 9, and strongly recommend it as the best instructional CD-ROM I have seen to date.

This is the most ambitious, current, ABA area instructional birding CD-ROM, and is noteworthy for the amount of material it contains, the variety of its presentations, its interactivity with other of Thayer Birding Software (TBS) products and the Internet, and its free Internet support and upgrades. As such, this is the only current product for the ABA region of its type that recognizes the potential of the CD-ROM medium, and is on its way to fully utilizing it. (TBS does itself a disservice by referring to Birds of North America, Version 2 (BNA2) as a field guide. It is not, and will not be until there are true pocket/hand-held computers. However, BNA2 does many things that no field guide can do.) Nonetheless, BNA2 is not without flaws since, as with all pioneering efforts, some parts are better than others. Also, as seems to be the case with virtually every computer product, not all of the bugs have been excised, although doing so is obviously an ongoing concern at TBS.

BNA2�s requirements are: Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows NT (95 or 98 recommended); 486/66 processor (Pentium 100+ recommended); 8Mb RAM (16 recommended); SVGA display, 256 color video drivers (16 bit recommended); double speed CR-ROM drive (quad speed recommended). MPC compatible sound card such as Soundblaster; 8Mb hard drive space (19Mb recommended). List price is $70.00.

BNA2 contains six programs: �Birds of North America� (not to be confused with the disc, BNA2), �The Birders Handbook�, �The Joy of Birding�, �Bird Quiz�, �Avian Jukebox�, and �Birds of the World Sampler�; and is intended to be used with the TBS�s Birder�s Diary and Dr. Charles G. Sibley�s Birds of the World, for an additional $140.00, (There is a discount if both are purchased together.) This brings the total price to less than that of the four AXIA discs combined, while offering vastly more.) BNA2 is also the only current product of this type ready for the 21^st century. Unfortunately, as noted, it pays a price for being so ambitious (details below), yet I can not but applaud the effort and look forward to future versions.

�Birds of North America�, the main program, offers about 2,500 photos of 917 species, vocalizations of about 685 species, and brief video clips of about 120 species. The interface page is dominated by a window in which appears a photo, range map, etc., of the currently selected species. There is a scrollable series of small windows (thumbnails) to the left containing other photos, range maps, and video (if available) of this species. By clicking a thumbnail, that image is enlarged and moved to the main window. Above these windows are the common name, order, family and scientific binomial of the current species. Above these is a pull down list of the 917 species. By highlighting or typing in its name, the species is illustrated. To the left of this list is a series of buttons that sequentially advances the species illustrated. To the right of this list is a series of buttons that allow you to change from common to scientific names and whether the order or presentation is alphabetic or taxonomic; zoom in on the current species; the size of the species; its habitat preferences; and a sample of its vocalizations (if available).

There is a �Birder�s Handbook� button which accesses the content of that book/program for the selected species. The menu bar includes identify, compare, bookmarks, and help. Identify offers a means to help determine a species by making a series of selections from five categories: habitat, size, state/province, family, and color. However, you must be careful in using this as any misinformation may exclude the species at issue. For example, if you enter color as gray; family as thrush/mimic; state as New Jersey; size as robin (8-12"); and habitat as city/suburbs, the Gray Catbird does not come up. (It does if you select habitats as fields/grasslands/scrub.) Compare allows you to place photos, range maps, or sonograms side by side. Bookmarks allows you to mark up to 35 species for more rapid access. Help offers both overviews and how to use information.

There are three primary problems with �Birds of North America�. First, it is still somewhat slow, even with hardware exceeding TBS�s recommendations. Second, the interface page is just not as flexible as, for example, AXIA�s. This is a shame as BNA2, offers so much more. Third (which applies to all of the programs of BNA2) this would be a much more useful teaching tool if it contained more photos, especially more non-breeding and immature plumages.

�The Birder�s Handbook� is the well reputed work of Paul Erlich, David Dubin, and Darryl Wheye of the same name in inactive form. (Pete Dunne considers this book to be an often overlooked treasure.) This program contains five parts: Introduction, How to Use This Book, Observing and Recording Bird Biology, Species Treatments in Taxonomical Order, and Essays in Alphabetical Order. The content of these parts is basic, but notably more accurate (and current) than that of the other discs I have examined. It also uses this medium�s interactive capability in that you can jump (via hyperlinks) from one topic to any related topic shown in green. If you are not familiar with how this works, I strongly urge you to �play� with it. (It won�t bite, and you can�t break it.)

The main subparts of �The Birder�s Handbook� are the species treatments and essays. The former are short and to the point. They also contain trivia that you might have trouble locating elsewhere, such as when each species was first described and by whom. The essays range from one paragraph biographies of significant ornithologists, to �Bird Milk�, to �Sexual Selection�. You can print whatever is in this program.

�The Joy of Birding� is another book, but one more attuned to the Internet with many accessible cross references to web sites. (It is also a product of TBS as opposed to one that it has been licensed to use.) �The Joy of Birding� is divided into 9 parts: Getting Started (for the neophyte we all are or have been), Checklists (for all of the states and many other areas), Backyard Birding (for those who are interested in birding very locally), Birding Around the Country (for those who like to see new places as well as new birds), Birding Around the World (for those who really like to see new places as well as new birds), Birding Tools (disappointing in its lack of scope, but it does include Pete Dunne�s fine article on binoculars), Scientific Classification (many birders know of the work of Linnaeus, but make sure you read the article about the work of Dr. Sibley), Birding Organizations (listed by zip code?!?), and Birder�s [sic] Mall (TBS is, after all, a commercial enterprise). All in all, there is enough good information in this program to hold the interest of anyone curious about birds or birding for a good long time.

�Bird Quiz� is the best ABA area bird identification tool I have seen to date. (�Avian Jukebox�, discussed next, is a close second.) This is not to say that it is without fault; rather, despite its (relatively minor) short comings, it is currently the state of the art instructional CD-ROM for ABA region birds. �Bird Quiz� opens to a six part selection page that allows you to access its approximately 200 preset quizzes (more are periodically available free on the Thayer�s web-site), or any quiz you create. First select the quiz you want to use. This can be one you have made, or a pre-defined quiz based upon a particular theme, family of birds, or birds of a particular state or province. If you chose the last, you can also select whether the quiz should be limited to only those birds not on your life list (again, so long as you have installed TBS�s Birder�s Diary). Your second choice is whether you want pictures, sounds, range maps, and/or �alternative media� (which allows use of the other photos, maps or video clips for the birds in the quiz). Your third selection is Multiple Choice, Fill in the Blank, or Flash Card. The first two are self-evident, although the second can be as much a test of your knowledge of avian nomenclature and typing as it is of your bird identification skills since you must correctly spell the name of the species as used in this program. Thus, if you type �turkey� for Ben Franklin�s choice of our national bird, you would be incorrect as this program only knows it as �wild turkey�. Flash Card is not really a quiz; rather it uses the picture, song, etc. (depending on which you have chosen), along with the name. As such, it is a good instructional technique for those who are still generally overwhelmed by and/or are trying to learn a new group or region. Your fourth choice is common versus (for the truly disturbed) scientific names. Your fifth choice is level of difficulty offering Easy, Not so Easy, Hurt Me Plenty, and Fill in the Blank. These are really misnamed as Not So Easy is quite easy, and Hurt Me Plenty does not do so.

Regardless, these choices offer a range of difficulty with the last being the ultimate test. However, as is necessarily so given the current state of CD-ROM technology, three factors detract from this program. First is the spelling/name selection problem just noted. Second is that, after a while, you learn to identify the photo as opposed to the bird. Third is that in most cases the later choices are easier because rarely are species duplicated within a given quiz. (The primary exception is the quiz entitled �Favorite Birds - Peter Thayer�, but I will not (more than I already have) spoil his little joke.)

Your sixth choice is time. You can set the quiz for no time limit which permits you to take as long as you wish, or you can select any time limit up to one minute using one second intervals. If you really want to test your nerve (not to mention ego and sanity), select �Easy Quiz - Take Me� set at one second. Another variation I found interesting was to select a particular quiz and have it display just the range map using the misnomer Hurt Me Plenty. (I was surprised at how many I could get right, largely because there were but five species from which to choose).

As noted, �Avian Jukebox� is a close second to �Bird Quiz� as the best ABA area CD-ROM instructional program I have ever seen. As with �Bird Quiz�, �Avian Jukebox� requires you to make an initial choice of which group to use from your own creation (via Thayer�s Birder�s Diary) or one of the pre-defined groups referenced above. When you activate this group, the vocalization is played. Your other main option is to have a list of the birds displayed. If you so choose, you will see the current species as well as the immediately preceding five species. If you do not make this selection, the current species is still shown in the lower left corner. You can also minimize this program (on Windows 95), and the vocalizations continue to play producing �audio wallpaper�. If you minimize this program by using the minus symbol in the upper right corner, the name of the species will appear on the Windows 95 Start Bar, which most have at the bottom of the screen. (If you minimize by simply activating another program, this does not occur.)

The last program on this disc is �Birds of the World Sampler�, and is a very basic collection of about 300 strange and/or colorful birds from around the world. Little more is offered than photos. As such, this is just a filler and, although I understand its inclusion, it weakens the overall product. Frankly, the disc space could be better used in any of a number of other ways such as larger images, more photos and videos, or longer and more varied vocalizations.

BNA2 is not without fault, but is clearly the most ambitious current bird identification CD-ROM, and the only one that realistically attempts to utilize this technology. Parts of it and its support package are trite (the applause after you complete each quiz regardless of how poorly you did or TBS�s �WAY COOL ALERT!!!� in some of its promotional information), but it is the current state of the art.

I have yet to review TBS�s Birder�s Diary or Dr. Sibley�s Birds of the World, so I do not comment upon them substantively in this review. Nonetheless, BNA2 is designed to use them. As such, BNA2 as it currently stands, and undoubtedly as it will develop, is leading the way into the 21^st century. We can only hope that its competitors will take the hint, as we will all benefit from an industry wide effort to improve.

Birds of North America Version 2 is not perfect, but it is clearly the current leader in ABA area bird identification CD-ROMs. On a scale of 0 (truly worthless) to 10 (the outer limit of human ability), I rate this product an 8 �, and strongly recommend it despite its lack of perfection. A significant aspect of this recommendation is based upon TBS�s apparent efforts to continuously upgrade and otherwise improve its products and support (an idea from which its competitors could learn).

AviSong is a unique program that greatly increases the usability of certain CD (not CD-ROM) bird recordings by allowing you to select and save the vocalizations you wish to hear and the order in which you wish to hear them. (To avoid confusing CD-ROM and CD, I will hereafter refer to the latter as compact disc.) AviSong requires a Microsoft Windows 95/98 or OS/2 operating system, a floppy disc drive (to load the program) a CD-ROM drive for the compact disc, and a sound board with speakers and/or earphone jack. AviSong lists for $59.95 and currently supports Peterson's Eastern/Central and Western compact discs, National Geographic's compact discs, the Songbirds of Rocky Mountain Foothills compact disc, and the Songbirds of Southwest Canyon Country compact disc. (Remember, you have to purchase the compact discs separately.) AviSong is planning to support additional compact discs, including those of Don and Lillian Stokes.

If you open AviSong without a compact disc in your computer (or remove it once you have opened AviSong), the cursor will spin. If you open it with an unsupported compact disc, it will tell you so. Once AviSong acknowledges a supported compact disc, it opens to its main screen. The supported disc is identified at the top; a Tool Bar below that contains "File", "Stage", and "Help" features; under the Tool Bar is a one column list of families on the left and a two column list of species on the right; five buttons are below these lists ("Stage", "Stop", "Find", "Next", and "Where"); to the right of these are radio buttons for "Talk and Song" or "Song Only"; up and down arrows; and a very small square in the extreme lower right corner.

You can use AviSong by simply scrolling through the lists until you come to a species whose vocalizations you want to hear, and then double-click it. If you have clicked the "Song Only" radio button, you will hear just the song. If you clicked the "Talk & Song" button you are told the species before you hear it. (The small square in the lower right corner will flash yellow while the song is playing.) You also can locate species by clicking the "Find" button and typing in at least part of a bird's name. If more than one species contains the letters you typed in the order in which you typed them, you can move through those species by clicking the "Next" button.

However, the power of AviSong is that it allows you to select a group of birds (related or otherwise) to study, and to save that group for future use. This is done by single-clicking species, and then clicking the "Stage" button in the lower left corner which adds the species to your study list. (You can add a species to your list more than once, by clicking the "Stage" button the desired number of times.) By clicking "Stage" on the Tool Bar (in the upper left; not the button in the lower left) you will be shown a list of the birds "On Stage" (those you have selected), and various options on the right: "Random", "Quiz"," Last Wrong", "Stop", "Delete", and "Clear". Below these are another set of "Talk & Song" and "Song Only" radio buttons.

If you simply wish to listen to the selected vocalizations, click the "Random" button. If you have selected "Talk and Song", the species will be identified before the vocalization is played; if not, it will not be. However, in either mode, the selected species will be highlighted. In "Quiz" mode, you must first select the species to be included in the quiz. (If you want to select a family, click the family name in the left column. If you want most but not all of a family, do likewise, and then delete those you do not want included. The format will automatically switch to "Song Only".) Begin by clicking the "Quiz" button, and a vocalization will be played. You then attempt to identify the species by double clicking it. You are told whether your response was accurate, and your score is displayed. If you erred, the correct species is identified and its vocalization re-played. The quiz will continue until you click the "Stop" button, which means you can hear each vocalization any number of times. In fact, "Quiz" often repeats a species before all of the selected species' vocalizations have been played. To end the quiz, click the "Stop" button. You will then be asked if you want to save this group of birds. You can also have your last error replayed by clicking the "Last Wrong" button, delete a species by highlighting it and clicking the "Delete" button, and delete all species by clicking the "Clear" button.

One last feature. If you highlight a species and click the "Where" button, it will tell you states and provinces the species occurs.

In summary, AviSong fills a too long vacant niche, namely allowing birders to select bird vocalizations from compact discs in the order in which they want to hear them. This may not seem like much, but to anyone who has spent time trying to learn bird vocalizations from a compact disc by listening to them in the order they are on the disc, AviSong is an obvious improvement. Even with compact disc players that permit you to select the cuts to be played and their order, most bird song compact discs list multiple species per cut. Regardless, selecting species is much easier with AviSong than via a compact disc player, and is much easier to save for future use. On a scale of 0 (truly worthless) to 10 (the outer limit of human ability), I rate AviSys at 8 and strongly recommend it.

This is a "first generation" CD-ROM in that it is a book (published by Stanford University Press) transposed onto a CD-ROM. It has hyper-links, a music option (that stops when you change screens), and some butterfly and moth videos. However, not all of the illustrations in the book are on the CD-ROM. Also, the name is misleading as neither the CD-ROM nor the book is a field guide. (No realistic hand held computers are currently available and the book is too large for realistic field use). This is not to say that Butterflies of North America (in CD-ROM or book form) is without merit, as it contains a lot of good information with generally well written text. Rather, its usefulness in the field is limited, especially as a CD-ROM.

Butterflies of North America requires a Windows operating system (3.x, 95, or 98), a CD-ROM drive, and a VGA or better video display. No other hardware requirements are noted. Based upon the speed with which it loads and operates (even on my now almost antiquated Pentium 133 with 32 MB of RAM), this is not a technically demanding program.

Butterflies of North America consists of 11 hyper-linked sections. The first, accessed by clicking "JAMES A. SCOTT", contains illustrated credits. The second, accessed by clicking "Butterflies of North America", is a table of contents with hyper-links to the "Preface" (of the 1986 version of the book), the "Introduction", articles on using the text and ranges maps, and the butterflies that are the subject of this book. (This section is a duplicate of the fourth section, "The Butterflies".)

"Butterflies of North America"/"The Butterflies" is the heart of Butterflies of North America, and is basically structured as in the book. There are discussions of each superfamily, family, subfamily, and tribe; followed by sections on each related species including field and specimen photos (which can be enlarged by clicking them), maps, and hyper-links to related illustrations. There are also forward (>>) and backward (<<) arrows at the top of the page that allow you to move through the species (or photos if they have been enlarged) in taxonomic sequence.

The third section, accessed by clicking "Biology and Ecology", contains 30 short articles providing a good introduction to the topics covered (e.g.: Molting and Metamorphosis, Larval Foods, Evolution and the Fossil Record, etc.) They also use mini-links (hyper-links to brief definitions) of highlighted words and phrases. Generally, the articles are well written and readable, and add to the pre and post field trip usefulness of Butterflies of North America.

The fourth section, "The Butterflies" (as noted) is a repeat of the second section, "Butterflies of North America" (discussed above).

The fifth section, accessed by clicking "Figures" (drawings used to illustrate various concepts), is a hyper-linked list of most of the figures in the book. However, the list simply identifies the figures by number without description. As such, this section (as opposed to its content) is not well presented. (The value of the figures arises out of their reference in other sections.)

The sixth section, accessed by clicking "Appendices", contains two subsections: Remote Island Butterflies and Studying Butterflies. The former addresses the butterflies of four islands: Iceland, Greenland, Bermuda, and Hawaii. Hawaii is included because it is part of the United States. The other islands are included because all of their butterflies occur in North America. The butterflies of each island are listed with hyper-links to each species. The latter is an article entitled Studying Butterflies, and will undoubtedly be disturbing to many field butterfliers as it emphasizes collecting and raising butterflies. As such, this subsection is inherently anomalous as a 21^st century media is used to explain a 19^th century technique. (This is not to say that collecting and raising butterflies no longer serve any reasonable purpose, when done with a strong sense of self control and ethics; but to emphasize it, as the author does, over field work bespeaks an ancient mind set.)

The seventh section, accessed by clicking "Video", contains about two dozen short videos of butterflies and moths, as well as moth photographs. The former constitute a good idea poorly executed. The images are small and often hard to see well. This is especially true of the video of two flying Tiger Swallowtails, where it is hard to identify the species. Likewise disappointing are the videos of a stationary Tiger Swallowtail larva and a nearly stationary nectaring adult Tiger Swallowtail. On the other hand, the photos of the moths are quite good (causing one to wish more field butterfly photos had been included).

The eighth section, accessed by clicking "Reference Matter", is divided into Bibliography, Hostplant Catalogue, Butterfly Gardening, and Glossary. Bibliography and Glossary are self explanatory with the latter particularly helpful to those not familiar with Lepidoptera nomenclature. Hostplant Catalogue begins with a brief explanation of plant types, followed by an alphabetic list of plant species with hyper-links to the butterflies that use each. As such, this is a very useful subsection containing information otherwise difficult (or at least inconvenient) to locate. Butterfly Gardening (not part of the book) offers a generally good introduction to this topic, making the appropriate distinction between plants used by larvae versus those used by adults. However, little mention is made of the fact that not all plants grow equally well throughout the country. Likewise, the author lists lilies as among the most worthless for butterflies ("butterflies almost never use lilies") while offering a video of a Pipevine Swallowtail nectaring on a tiger lily. These points may seem picky, but Butterfly Gardening begins with the following:

Butterfly gardening has become very popular, and is currently a fad. Several books have even been published on butterfly gardening, but all of them list some flowers as popular that really are not, so none of the current books can be recommended.

The ninth section, accessed by clicking "Identification Collections", is an incomplete selection of the plates in the book. The excluded plates would have been most useful in a field guide as they are field photos (as opposed to partial specimens). Also, when this section is accessed, you are presented with a list of color plates by number. To ascertain the contents of any plate you have to access it. Such an inefficient use of the CD-ROM media is not an asset to this product.

The tenth section, accessed by clicking "Tables", contains two items: The Butterfly Census, and Traits Useful in Identifying the Species and Varieties of the Papilio machon Group. The former is a long, 1986 chart of the number of genera, species, and subspecies of moths and butterflies known or thought to occur in North America and the world. The latter is a very long chart detailing the marks (field and otherwise) useful in identifying Artemisia Swallowtail and its subspecies. Again, the presentation of these charts is difficult to use on a computer as only a small portion of each fits on the screen. (One would have hope that, as we enter the 21^st Century, the CD-ROM medium would be used more effectively than this.)

The 11^th section, accessed by clicking "Identification of Eggs, Larvae, Pupae, and Adults" contains 13 articles of varying length which allow access, via hyper-link, to referenced illustrations. While a number of the other sections fail to utilize the CD-ROM medium to its fullest, this section actually uses it to reduce its usefulness by separating the illustrations from the text. Be that as it may, the material (for those willing to parse their way through it) is detailed and functional for non-field use. However, even if one were to carry these articles (after printing them) into the field, they are not likely to be of much use there.

The Butterflies of North America: a Natural History and Field Guide is a first generation CD-ROM in that it is basically a book transposed onto a CD-ROM. The result is a product that fails to utilize the medium as well as the better birding CD-ROMs (such as Thayer's Birds of North America) and, in at least one instance, uses it to detract from the product (by displaying charts that are difficult to read because of their length). It is also not a field guide because hand held computers are not yet realistically available, and because its focus involves the post-field study of collected specimens. Nonetheless, it is the first butterfly CD-ROM of which I am aware, and contains a lot of good, generally readable material. On a scale of 0 (truly worthless) to 10 (the outer limit of human ability), I rate this product a 6 � and recommend it as it is the only CD-ROM butterfly game in town.

Gould�s Birds of Australia is a different CD-ROM as it is based solely upon The Birds of Australia by John Gould, a 19^th century English naturalist/entrepreneur who toured that country with his artist wife Elizabeth and son John Henry Gould from 1838 to 1840. It contains all 681 of his plates, the corresponding text, maps and photos of the areas Gould visited, and some brief biologic and background information. As such, Gould�s Birds of Australia is of historic as well as biologic interest and, until a more "modern" identification CD-ROM is produced, is the best product covering the birds of Australia of which I am aware.

Gould�s Birds of Australia�s stated minimum requirements are: a Multimedia PC with 8 MB RAM and 10 MB free hard drive space, a CD-ROM drive, a Windows compatible sound card, and 640 x 480, 256 color capability; Windows 3.1 or higher (I assume, but do not know, it will work on Windows NT and/or 98). According to its web site (http://www.eck.net.au/~h/), this CD lists for $49.95 Australian. (I do not know the exchange rate.)

Upon opening Gould�s Birds of Australia, you are presented with a page showing a pair of Major Mitchell�s Cockatoos accompanied by their vocalizations. Two arrows (Exit and Help) are the only directions offered. When you click Help, it becomes start and you are presented with a tool bar that allows access to the various parts of this product. If you click on the cockatoos, you are taken to the "Book"which contains the plates and text that are the substance of this work. The tool bar also appears by doing this, and contains Help, Book, Find, Back, Forward, Gould, and Exit buttons.

Help offers a brief guide on how to use this program. Not a lot of information is offered, as not a lot is needed. Its sections are: "The Basics", "Keyboard Short cuts", "The Toolbar", "Screen elements explained", "What is in this CD", "Your Questions answered", "Interesting Species", and "Thanks to".

"The Basics" explains what your mouse buttons do. "Keyboard Shortcuts" explains what the arrow keys and ALT-F4 do. "The Toolbar" shows what each button will do. (However, the Tool Bar shown in Help has a Menu button not on the main Tool Bar. The only other Menu button is in Help which simply returns you to the Help Table of Contents.) "Screen elements explained" outlines the format of the "Book". "What is in this CD" lists its contents. "Your Questions answered" addresses three format issues that would be annoying without this section. "Interesting Species" directs you to four birds with atypical characteristics. "Thanks to" gives credit to three organizations that supported this production.

The second Tool Bar button is the "Book". The plates and accompanying text are presented in the order the plates appeared in Gould�s original work (which does not correspond to the plate numbers.) Covering part of each page is the Tool Bar. This is annoying, but easily dealt with by dragging the Tool Bar to below the plate/text page. To the left on each page is the plate with the corresponding text to the right. A number of the plates are sideways, as in the original. Clicking on a plate enlarges it and presents it right side up. Unfortunately, the enlarged images rarely show the entire plate (which could be at least partially rectified with a scroll bar) resulting in much of the plates and birds not being shown. Perhaps the worse example of this is the Superb Lyrebird. This plate contains two individuals, one sitting on a branch and the other standing with its tail erect. However, the enlargement shows the sitting bird and but a small part of the other but not any of its spectacular tail. Another example of this problem involves the Green Catbird. The plate shows two birds, one perched vertically and one bending over to reach berries below its feet. The latter is enlarged resulting in an image that appears to be rotated ninety degrees. This cropping tends to be less of a problem with the smaller birds because their images often occupy less of each plate so that the enlarged image is more likely to show all of the bird. Nonetheless, not all of the plates are cropped when enlarged (e.g.: the Satin Bowerbird). For strangeness of another kind, look at plate 230, the Buff-rumped Thornbill. The lower image took me awhile to comprehend: a view from behind of a bird entering its nest.

Another problem is that the plates are generally dark, some severely so (e.g.: Helmeted Friarbird and Victoria�s Riflebird), especially when enlarged (e.g.: Wompoo Fruit-Dove).

The text, on the other hand, is complete, whether or not enlarged, because of scroll bars. It uses Gould�s nomenclature, much of which is no longer applicable. (This is nicely dealt with as the current names appear at the top of the Tool Bar.) As should be expected, the text is dated and of predominantly historic significance. As such, it offers an interesting insight into the knowledge and thoughts of the time.

The third Tool Bar button is "Find" which allows you to type in the name of a species and be taken to it in the "Book".

The fourth button accesses a map of Australia showing the places Gould visited by a series of maps and photographs. Unfortunately, a number of the photos are quite dark.

The fifth and sixth buttons are forward and back arrows which allow you to move through the "Book" one page at a time.

The seventh Tool Bar button accesses brief explanatory information about Gould, his family, and his work. This is nice, but does little because it is so brief.

John Gould�s Birds of Australia does a reasonable job at its intended purpose: to present the plates and texts of John Gould (Australia�s Audubon) in a way that is of both historic and biologic interest. However, one should not expect this product to be the "down-under" version of Thayer�s Birds of North America as that is not its intent. On a scale of 0 (truly worthless) to 10 (the outer limit of human ability), I rate John Gould�s Birds of Australia a 7, and recommend it for its historic interest and because I am unaware of any other CD-ROM addressing Australia�s varied birds.

While this series of bird identification CD-ROMs is expensive (virtually $240.00 for the set which covers only a small portion of North American birds), its photos are among the best and its interface page is one of the better currently available.

AXIA does not specify its hardware requirements, but these discs support virtually unlimited colors. If your computer does not have this capacity (many are limited to 256 colors, and some others to 16 colors), certain items intended to appear simultaneously are only available sequentially. List price is $59.95 for each disc.

All AXIA birding discs contain at least three programs: Slide Show, HTUA (How to Use AXIA), and the respective substantive program. Some discs also contain other programs that are discussed in their individual reviews. The substantive programs, which are the titles of the discs, include: Common Bird Songs (CBS), Know Your Waterfowl (Waterfowl), Know Your Owls (Owls), and Know Your Birds of Prey - Falcons to Vultures (Raptors).

With the exception of Raptors, Slide Show is a presentation of photos of the birds on the particular disc, accompanied by vocalizations. After a brief period, a narrator identifies the species, which then remains on the screen for a few more seconds. Although not an interactive program, you can adjust the timing of its presentation, pause it, and move forward or backward as desired. The Raptor Slide Show uses Louis Agassiz Fuertes fine bird portraits, but only 12 species are included in Slide Show while the disc includes 37 species.

HTUA, (How to Use AXIA), is a good, non-interactive demonstration of the main program. It provides a demonstration of the available options. The primary tool is the AXIA "Interface" page which has upper left and upper right windows with a smaller area below each which contains the "items" (species, topics, etc.) that can be displayed. Between the windows are six buttons that allow you to choose "aspects" related to the items selected. The "aspects" vary, but typically include song (a photo with accompanying vocalization), photo (a Peterson-like illustration with arrows pointing to field marks), waves (sonogram), range (range maps), habitat (very basic, composite pictures of different habitats), and chorus (birds singing simultaneously). Below the aspect buttons are "explore" and "challenge" buttons, which are the primary sub-programs.

You select the species, topic, etc., (item) you wish to display, and then decide which aspects to examine (via explore) or to be tested on (challenge).

In the "explore" mode, you select up to two items (species/topics/etc.) and choose which aspects to examine. You can also display a brief description of the selected item(s). Thus, you determine what to explore. The "challenge" mode, on the other hand, allows you to test yourself. When you activate challenge, the right list disappears. Then, you are presented with the aspect you have selected, such as vocalization, picture, range map, or habitat selection; and are asked to identify the species/topic/etc. If your answer is incorrect, your selection is presented so you can contrast it with the one at issue. If your answer is correct, you are told so. If you do not know (or do not want to guess any longer), there is an answer button that will identify the correct response.

AXIA also has automatically expanding groupings (called incremental learning) which change as the correct responses reach a number you can set (the default is three). In addition, AXIA permits the creation of groupings (called subsets) based upon whatever criteria you wish.

Another interesting variation is the multiple answer feature. Obviously, different species share certain aspects with other species. For example, Great Blue Herons, Belted Kingfishers, and Common Yellowthroats all commonly occur in fresh water marshes. This feature can be used in either explore or challenge mode. In the former, the multiple occurring species are all highlighted; in the latter, you are told how many share the current aspect, and you then select that many until you have found them all.

Finally, there is a timer mechanism that allows you to vary how much time you have to answer in the challenge mode.

Know Your Owls offers three programs (Slide Show, How to use AXIA (HTUA), and AXIA Owls) featuring 19 North American owls. AXIA Owls, the substantive program of this disc, begins with a "Contents" divided into: "Multimedia Presentation", "Identification", "Natural History", and "Owls by Region".

"Multimedia Presentation" is an instructional (versus identification) presentation with seven non-interactive segments: "How Owls See", "How Owls Hear", "How Owls Hunt", "Prey!", "Habitat and Nesting Behavior", "Races and Color Phases", and "How to Watch Owls". These provide basically good, albeit brief, introductions to these topics. (However, "How to Watch Owls" does not contain the amount, quality, or detail as does Clay and Pat Sutton's How to Spot an Owl.) Also, portions of "Multimedia Presentation" can be misleading. For example, Owls uses the call of a Great Horned Owl ("Whose awake; me too") as a transition at the end of each segment. However, the last illustrations are not Great Horned Owls. Thus, the last call you hear is of a species other than the one shown. I suspect this was a production decision intended to provide continuity. However, this artistic concern detracts from Owls effectiveness as a teaching aid. Another distraction involves a photo of a Northern Pygmy Owl showing one bird with its back to the viewer and its head turned to the left standing in front of a second bird facing right in such a way that it is very hard to decipher the picture. This is not an effective learning aid.

"Identification" has seven segments: "Small Owls", "Medium Owls", "Large Owls", "Owls with Tufts", "Owls without Tufts", ""Color Phases and Races", and "All Owls". All use the AXIA Interface page. "Natural History" has five segments: "Habitat", "Prey", "Nest", "Pellet", and "All Owls". Again, all use the AXIA Interface page, but with different aspects. "Habitat" has Habitat, Adult, and Sketch; "Prey" has Prey, Adult, and Sketch; "Nests" has Nests, Adult, and Sketch; "Pellets" has Adult, Sketch, Pellets, and Bones; "All Owls" has Adult, Sketch, Habitat, Nest, and Prey. "Explore" and "Challenge" modes are utilized throughout.

Unfortunately, there are some misleading presentations. Most notable is in the "Prey" segment in which 10 species of birds are indicated as prey for eight species of owls. Thus, Ruffed Grouse and Willow Ptarmigan are among the listed prey species, while Boreal and Burrowing Owls are among the listed predator species suggesting that these owls take these prey. Yet the Burrowing Owl is not likely to encounter (little to no range overlap) either of these prey species. Likewise, the 10 inch Boreal Owl may have some difficulty tackling the 15 inch Willow Ptarmigan or 17 inch Ruffed Grouse.

Apparently, AXIA intended that some of listed prey birds are taken by some of the listed owls, but this is not readily apparent. Thus, although the experienced birder (who is less likely to use this disc) may come to realize AXIA's apparent intent, the inexperienced birder will probably be misled.

"Owls by Region" divides North America (north of Mexico) in eight regions: "Northeast Atlantic", "Southeast Atlantic", "South Central", "Mid Central", "North Central", "Southwest Pacific", "Northwest Pacific", and "Arctic". When a region is opened, AXIA's Interface appears configured as in "All Owls" in the "Natural History" section (i.e.: with the following aspects: Adult, Sketch, Habitat, Nest, and Prey), but the owls available are limited to those occurring in the selected region. In this way, AXIA offers pre-arranged groupings that permit studying those owls most likely to occur in a given region. AXIA also permits you to make your own groupings based upon whatever criteria you wish, or to use its incremental learning system which changes the list of potential answers after you have correctly identified a species a certain number of times. These are generally effective learning aids.

Know Your Owls is based upon a good idea that is not as well executed as it is conceived. Nonetheless, on a scale of 0 (truly worthless) to 10 (the outer limit of human ability), I rate this product a 6�, and recommend it for the beginner/intermediate birder but with the caution that not everything on it is accurate.

Know Your Birds of Prey offers seven programs ("U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Video", "Fuertes Slide Show"," Hawk Panorama", "Hawks Glossary", "Guide to Hawks", "How to use AXIA (HTUA)", and "AXIA Birds of Prey") featuring 37 species of diurnal raptors. However, these extra programs are largely fillers of little consequence. In fact, although the "U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Video" begins with a Bald Eagle, no other raptor is even mentioned in this program. As such, it does not belong on this disc.

"Fuertes Slide Show" is comprised of 12 of Louis Agassiz Fuertes' fine portraits. However, they are not as useful as the photos used in the Slide Shows contained on the other AXIA discs. More useful is the "Hawks Glossary" as it provides basic information the beginner should know. It consists of labeled paintings accessed via a scrollable list of the words and phrases denominating the major external anatomy of birds of prey. However, the use of the word "Hawk" to encompass all raptors is inaccurate (falcons, kites, and vultures are not hawks), and is thus not an effective learning aid. "Hawk Panorama" is a single illustration (requiring one to scroll horizontally to see it all) of the underwing view of the 37 species on this disc in flight. This program is helpful in learning the basics of hawk flight identification, which is how most hawks are seen in the wild. However, it would be more helpful if it could be printed and thus taken into the field.

"Guide to Hawks" has seven sub-programs: Learn the Groups; Falcons; Buteos; Accipiters, Osprey, Harrier; Eagles; Kites; and Vultures. The first uses AXIA's Interface page and groups the species into four categories (vultures and eagles, kites, hawks, and caracara and falcons) which are the "items". The "aspects" are perched photo, flight photo, perched sketch, flight sketch, gray sketch, and silhouette. The other sub-programs offer non-interactive pictures, range maps, vocalizations, and text of the 37 species with a button that accesses an AXIA Interface page for each family. The "aspect" buttons here are perched photo, flight photo, perched sketch, flight sketch, range, and collage. The last presents three or four photos of soaring birds that have been electronically transferred to a single page with no concern for size or scale. Thus, you see a Swainson's Hawk larger than a Bald Eagle and a White-tailed Kite larger than an Osprey. Again, this is a good idea that was not executed as well as it was conceived. Vocalizations are also offered for some of the species, as are video clips, both of which are nice additions. Even better are the labels pointing out field marks on the multiple images of the species illustrated. (The labels can be turned on or off which is a helpful option, especially in challenge mode.)

However, the text should be considered carefully. For example, it states that the female American Kestrel is slightly smaller than the male (which is not accurate) and then gives average dimensions and weights showing the opposite (which is accurate). The text for Swainson's Hawk says that this species may cover 150,000 miles in migration in 8 years (almost 20,000 miles a year). This is simply not true. Other "information" is potentially misleading such as the White-tailed Hawk in which the photo (if it is this species at all) is a dark phase bird unlike any of the other photos or illustrations of this species (and unlike any I have ever seen in life or in a book). Likewise, the flight sketches of the Osprey all say with crooked wings. This is true when they are not soaring on thermals, which they often do with fully extended straight wings and tails. (By the way, so do Peregrine Falcons, which is a shock to the experienced mountain raptor-watcher who sees this species doing so for the first time, typically along the coast.)

Nonetheless, "Guide to Hawks" has some good features, with perhaps the best being the underwing flight illustrations arranged by groups which provide a nice comparison. But this could have been improved by also offering (at very little extra cost or space) the black-and-white and silhouette drawings of the same birds. That way, the color sketches would have shown their appearance in good light while the others would have shown them as they appear in poor light. Furthermore, for those who do their raptor watching in the mountains, a color series showing the upper surfaces of these birds would have been helpful. (Some of my more memorable, non-Cape May days, watching raptors were from Raccoon Ridge in late October when a near constant stream of Red-tails passed below eye level, with the occasional other species thrown in for good measure.)

"AXIA Birds of Prey" opens with a Contents page offering four categories: Multimedia Presentation, Identification, Natural History, and Regions. The first category is divided into two sub-categories: Introduction to Birds of Prey - Hawks, and Families. These provide brief overviews with one glaring error, the statement that the Merlin only occurs in North America. (It also occurs in Europe and Asia.) Further detracting from the Introduction is a blatant ad for one of AXIA's other discs. This is especially annoying, as this is a non-interactive program so that you can not skip the commercial.

Identification is divided into three categories: Groups, All Species, and Subspecies and Morphs. The first two are repeats of programs used in "Guide to Hawks". The last uses the AXIA Interface page with the subspecies and morphs of ten species as the "items" and the following "aspects": perched photo, flight photo, perched sketch, flight sketch, gray sketch, and range.

Natural History is divided into Habitats, Prey, Nests, Eggs, By Group, Summer Habitats, and Winter Habitats. Habitats is further divided into fifteen types, each of which provides access to an AXIA Interface page for the raptors occurring in that habitat. However, caution must again be exercised, as I do not associate, for example, Turkey Vultures with coniferous forests anymore than I associate American Kestrels with deciduous forests. I also do not associate Osprey as preying upon reptiles, especially when the illustration of presumed prey includes a turtle; and I would really like to see a California Condor nesting in a cactus cavity.

Regions divides North America north of Mexico into nine areas. When you click on a region, you access an AXIA Interface page for the raptors occurring in that part of the continent.

Know Your Birds of Prey is based upon a good idea that is not as well executed as it is conceived. It contains irrelevant programs (e.g.: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Video) and misleading and/or inaccurate information. However, it does have some good segments. Thus, on a scale of 0 (truly worthless) to 10 (the outer limit of human ability), I rate this product a 6�, and I recommend it despite its short comings as it does contain some good material.

Know Your Waterfowl offers four programs (Quick Look, Slide Show, How to use AXIA (HTUA), and AXIA Waterfowl) featuring the 45 species of waterfowl that regularly appear in North American.

Quick Look is a scrollable list of the waterfowl on this disc offering a photo of each species, with a brief text and vocalization, and a short video of 34 of them. Slide Show is as described in the AXIA Introduction to this series of reviews.

Waterfowl begins with a "Contents" divided into: "Introduction to Waterfowl", "A Guided Tour", "About Waterfowl", "About Habitats", and "For the Expert". "Introduction to Waterfowl" is a brief, non-interactive program that provides a reasonable albeit modest overview. "A Guided Tour" is also non-interactive, and begins by claiming that AXIA Waterfowl is a "multimedia field guide", which it clearly is not (unless you are accustomed to carrying your computer in the field!). Regardless, it provides an otherwise nice overview of Waterfowl and, as such, should logically have been first in the "Contents" page.

"About Waterfowl" is divided into four subcategories: Learn the Groups; Swans, Geese, etc,; At a Glance; and All Waterfowl.

Learn the Groups provides a brief, non-interactive overview of the seven subsets of North American waterfowl: whistling ducks, swans, geese, dabbling ducks, diving ducks, mergansers, and stiff-tailed ducks. By pressing the forward button (in the lower right portion of the first page), you can access the AXIA Interface in which these seven groups are the listed "items" with photos as the only "aspect". One or two photos of each species is offered, most with vocalizations, as are the "explore" and "challenge" modes.

Swans, Geese, etc. regroups waterfowl into five subsets by combining the two North American species of whistling-ducks with the geese, and the one regular species of North American stiff-tailed duck with the diving ducks. The non-interactive overviews of these groups is largely a replay of Learn the Groups and, as such, is not an efficient use of space. There is also an AXIA Interface page for each group in this category with six "aspects" (photos, sound, sketch, habitats, behavior, and videos), as well as "explore" and "challenge". (The aspect "habitats" includes range maps, while the aspect "behavior" is often a repeat of the aspect "videos" for each species.)

The presentation is also occasionally confusing. For example, in discussing whistling ducks, the narration says they have long necks, legs, and feet like a Fulvous Whistling Duck. But the phrasing of this otherwise accurate statement makes it sound as if this group has long legs and necks as does the long footed Fulvous Whistling Duck. The result is an increased likelihood of confusion, especially for relatively inexperienced birders. A different problem is that one of the photos labeled fresh water marsh is really a swamp. (The former does not have trees; the latter does.)

About Habitats has four subcategories: Key Habitats, Where to Find Them, Summer Field Trips, and Winter Field Trips; with non-interactive overviews followed by AXIA Interface pages. Some of the content is good, such as the brief discussion of fresh, salt, and brackish waters. However, there is a lot of repetition. Summer Field Trips offers seven non-interactive programs covering brackish coastal marshes, fresh water tundra, fresh water lakes, fresh water marshes, fresh water ponds, rivers and streams, and sea coasts. Winter Habitats offers eleven non-interactive programs covering: salt water bays, salt water marshes, sea coasts, seashores, brackish coastal marshes, brackish estuaries, fresh water lakes, fresh water marshes, rivers and streams, cities and town, and agricultural fields.

For the Experts is divided into English (common name) and Scientific (Linean binomials) with each offering a short, non-interactive introduction. The thrust of this subcategory is to allow you to test yourself, and it has some good potential once you get past its pretentiousness. ("If you really consider yourself an expert... .") However, the Scientific section, with its emphasis on using the Linean binomial names of the species, is simply beyond the scope of this product. Specifically, as with all of the AXIA bird discs, this one is clearly intended for the beginner/intermediate birder. Therefore, it is unrealistic to present such a person, who is trying to absorb the basics of bird identification, with the task of also trying to assimilate a nomenclature the foundation of which has not been presented and the language of which uses names (s)he has probably never before heard.

Having said that, the English section has potential as an instructional aid, but not quite as much as it should have. The problem is that the first two aspects offered are Sketches and Females. The sketches used are not very good, especially in the size they appear on the screen. The Females, for those species without sexual dimorphism (different plumages for each gender), is a good teaching device. But for the other species, it is probably too difficult a task for the intended audience. Regardless, users will fairly quickly learn to identify the images presented, even though this is of limited value in the field where many other presentations exist.

Know Your Waterfowl is based upon a good idea that is not as well executed as it is conceived. Nonetheless, on a scale of 0 (truly worthless) to 10 (the outer limit of human ability), I rate this product a 6�, and I recommend it for the beginner/intermediate birder willing to overlook its shortcomings.

Know Your Common Bird Songs offers 121 North American birds in three main programs: Slide Show, How to use AXIA (HTUA), and AXIA CBS (Common Bird Songs). The underlying problem with this disc is that it only offers 121 randomly selected species from across the continent, some of which are clearly not song birds and do not sing (e.g.: Great Blue Heron and Ruffed Grouse). True, all are common in their ranges and habitats, but offering birds that do not occur together is not a helpful teaching aid. For example, little is achieved by offering the Chestnut-backed Chickadee as the only chickadee other than Black-capped. Would not a comparison of Black-capped and Carolina Chickadees have been more helpful, especially since the best way to separate them (other than a map) is by song? Furthermore, the third most likely chickadee the eastern birder will encounter is the Boreal, which periodically erupts into the middle Atlantic states. Another example of this problem is that of the 30 to 40 eastern breeding (and therefore singing) warblers, only seven are on this disc. (The Orange-crowned Warbler is included, but I have never heard it sing this side of Utah.)

A related problem, especially in challenge mode, comes from the fact that many closely related species are not on the disc. Thus, I can now easily identify the picture of the California Quail because it is the only plumed quail on this disc. However, in the field, I could not tell it from a Gambel's Quail. A more helpful approach would have been to offer one disc for eastern song birds and another for western song birds (and not include non-song birds). This would have made learning significantly less confusing, and would have allowed the student to focus on those birds that (s)he had a reasonable chance of encountering. (AXIA may respond by noting that the user can group the birds as (s)he desires. However, beginning birders are not likely to know what birds to group or why. Intermediate birders are less likely to be confused, but one would hope that an instructional product such as this would facilitate learning, not make it more difficult.)

AXIA CBS, the substantive program, begins with a "Contents" page that has five headings: "Multimedia Presentations", "Songs and Voices", ""Where Birds Sing", "Habitats", and "Regions". "Multimedia Presentations" has six topics: Introduction, Types of Bird Songs, Why Birds Sing, Where Birds Sing, When Birds Sing, and Using Song Waves (i.e.: sonograms). These are non-interactive programs that give reasonable, albeit cursory, overviews of the topics noted. The information is reasonably good, but occasionally misleading, as when it mentions that birds such as albatrosses and vultures often have limited vocal abilities, but only a Turkey Vulture is displayed (and without identification). This should not be a problem for those with more experience, but could be confusing for the neophyte.

"Songs and Voices" is divided into two groups, one with three topics and the other with six. The first group contains Common Birds that Sing, Types of Bird Songs, and The Birds in Chorus; while the second group contains Sings its Name, Familiar Birds, Songs with Words, Musical Songs, Screams, and Croaks and Squawks. These sub-programs use the AXIA Interface page. (The Sub-program The Birds in Chorus may be the best on this disc as it combines a target species with two or three identified other species singing together. I found this to offer good practice at differentiating the songs and calls.)

"Where Birds Sing" contains seventeen habitat groups. Using the AXIA Interface page, the birds that occur in the habitat you select comprise the items with five aspects available. One of these is Range, which shows a range map. (Interestingly, the range map for Canada Goose on this disc does not quite conform to the range map for Canada Goose in AXIA's Know Your Waterfowl. It is these kinds of inconsistencies that detract from the quality of AXIA's products.)

"Habitats" is divided into All Habitats, Habitats Near Water, Wilderness Habitats on Land, and Human Habitations. These use the AXIA Interface page by allowing you to select one of the four habitat groups, and then explore the species that occur in it. However, the "information" offered is not as accurate as desired, such as listing Red-eyed Vireo as occurring in "prairies and grasslands", Northern Mockingbird occurring in "deciduous forests", or Warbling Vireo not occurring along "rivers and streams".

"Regions" divides North America north of Mexico into eight regions. When each is accessed, the AXIA Interface page appears with the birds on this disc occurring in that region as the items. Again, however, do not rely too heavily on the "information" presented. (For example, the range map for Dark-eyed Junco indicates that this species does not breed in the United States when it clearly does.)

Know Your Common Bird Songs is based upon a good idea that is not as well executed as it is conceived. It also contains inaccuracies. On a scale of 0 (truly worthless) to 10 (the outer limit of human ability), I rate this product a 6, and recommend it for the beginner/intermediate birder but with the caution that not everything on it is accurate.

This is among the more fully developed of the current instructional birding CD-ROMs, but it still does not fully utilize the CD-ROM technology. However, its greatest strength is one of its greatest weakness.

It is tautological that those of us who bird today, do so atop the strong, broad shoulders of the late Roger Tory Peterson. He was the creator and dean of 20^th century birding, and nothing any of us now do or say will ever diminish what Dr. Peterson did and so graciously bequeathed to us. Likewise, without the aid of Houghton Mifflin Company (HMC), Dr. Peterson's efforts may never have seen the light of day. HMC took no small chance in 1934 when it published Dr. Peterson's Guide to the Birds of Eastern North America, and the fact that HMC, Dr. Peterson, and the Guide have been (and continue to be) so deservedly successful in no manner reduces the risk HMC took.

It is also tautological that time marches on, and to fail to continue to move forward results in being passed by. Unfortunately, this has happened to HMC with Peterson Multimedia Guides: North American Birds, Version 1.1 (NAB1.1). The primary reason appears to be that NAB1.1 is basically a transfer to a CD-ROM of Dr. Peterson's bird guides of eastern and western North America. The result is better than either guide because it contains the birds of both, and better than their combination because of the inclusion of vocalizations. However, NAB1.1 does little beyond this except to provide commentaries by Dr. Peterson (that are as much nostalgic as they are substantive) and access to a single internet site (Peterson Online). Thus, NAB1.1 does not go significantly beyond the work of Dr. Peterson; rather, it relies too heavily upon the past master.

NAB1.1's minimum requirements are: Windows 3.1 or Windows 95; 486/33 processor; 8Mb RAM (12 recommended for Windows 95); SVGA display (256 color, 16 bit recommended); double speed CR-ROM drive; MPC2 compatible sound card; mouse; 20 Mb hard disc space. For internet access, a 14.4 KBPS modem and an additional 6 Mb of hard disc space are required. List price is $59.00.

NAB1.1 contains eight programs: "Welcome", "Visual Category Guide", "Options", "Peterson Online", "Peterson's Perspective", "Life List", "Bird Finder", and "Skill Builder". The programs present information on 949 species (but do not include the recent AOU changes), about 700 photos with about as many vocalizations, about 15 minutes of video, and Dr. Peterson's field guide illustrations. These illustrations are a major difference between NAB1.1 and the other instructional CD-ROMs which rely almost exclusively upon photos. (This distinction, in and of itself, warrants a protracted discourse beyond the scope of this review. Pete Dunne and I did this recently in discussing David Sibley's choice to follow Dr. Peterson's example and use painted illustrations in his upcoming field guide, a decision that is hard to dispute given David's outstanding abilities. Suffice it to say, that one with the skill of a Roger Tory Peterson, or a David Sibley, can manipulate an illustration, and render variations on it, that are just not possible with a camera. On the other hand, a well executed photo is a slice of life, albeit a single one).

"Welcome" is a short narrative tour of six of the seven other programs. Peterson Online is omitted; perhaps because HMC realized that any changes to Peterson Online web site might contradict Dr. Peterson's narrative. HMC also probably recognized that Dr. Peterson would not be with us much longer (he actually died about a month before the release of NAB1.1), and therefore would not be able to provide updated narratives.

"Visual Category Guide" is intended to allow you to study and/or identify birds by first placing them (except for 48 exotic species) into one of eight visual categories: perching birds (sparrows, thrushes, etc.), aerialists (gulls, terns, etc.), non-perching land birds (pigeons, woodpeckers, etc.), swimmers (waterfowl, etc.), long-legged waders (herons, cranes, etc.), smaller waders (shorebirds, etc.), birds of prey (hawks, eagles, owls, etc.), and fowl-like birds (grouse, quail, etc.). Once you place a bird into one of these groups, you click on the group and are presented with one or more plates of representative species (the Family/Group). Clicking on one of the representative species, takes you to the applicable pages in Dr. Peterson's Guides. These electronic pages are split in half with the left describing the family/group to the right. In the lower right of each half page is a square with a diagonal through it, and a number above and below. The top is the number of the current page while the bottom is the number of pages in the section. As you move the cursor over these squares (on the illustration pages), a yellow rectangle appears with a lower case "e" or "w" and up to three digits thus identifying the guide used (eastern or western) and the page.

At the end of some of these illustrations are photos of the birds. Above these pages are three drop down list buttons. Click the left one (Visual Category) and you are shown a list of the eight visual categories. Click the middle button ((Family/Group) and you are shown a list of the families in the current Visual Category. Click the right button (Species) and you are presented with a list of the species in the current Family/Group.

Click on an illustration and you are presented with a page detailing that species. This includes Peterson's illustrations, a field photo which can be enlarged, a description, a range map, and sections on habitat, feeding, nesting, status, field marks, similar species, and vocalizations. (However, not be all of this information is offered for the rarer species.) For a few of the birds, the Roger Tory Peterson (RTP) button to the lower right is active, and offers a brief comment by Dr. Peterson. Also in the lower right are life list and bird finder buttons (which permit direct access to those programs, discussed below), as well as arrows for moving to the last and next species. Thus, this program is an electronic (non)field guide with the added bonus of vocalizations.

"Options" is divided into five categories: Help, User Settings, Birding Resources, Glossary, and Credits. Help has two main parts. The first briefly describes the eight programs constituting this disc, as well as the three navigation icons appearing in the upper right of most screens (to allow you to return to the last page, the home page, or the option page). The second briefly describes what is covered on the disc (949 species of which 48 are exotic). User Settings permits you to select various groups of bird songs to play as background while the home page is up but not in use. Unfortunately, you are not provided with the identification of the birds (which can be frustrating when you hear one you know but can not identify!). Birding Resources provides a very limited listing of various sources of bird related products and information (e.g.: two videos). Glossary is a useful list of definitions associated with birds and birding. Credits is a list of those who contributed to this disc.

"Peterson Online" permits you to access this internet site, so long as you are already connected to an internet provider.

"Peterson's Perspectives" is divided into sixteen sections with a video narration by Dr. Peterson entitled "Watching Birds with Roger Tory Peterson". Each section also offers one or more electronic pages, each of which has additional information ranging from short pull down messages to more video clips. These provide an introduction to birds and birding for the relatively inexperienced, but are brief and basic. They include an illustration showing the external, anatomical parts of a bird; and videos an American Dipper foraging in a stream and of Western Grebes performing their mutual courtship display.

"Life List" is NAB1.1's listing program, but is really no more than a means of keeping track of whether you have seen a bird. This is a far cry from the programs that allow you to record all of you sightings (such as TBS's Birder's Diary, Avisys for Windows, or BirdBase/BirdArea), and is among the clearest examples of why NAB is disappointing.

"Bird Finder" is NAB1.1's program to help identify an unknown species. Such programs require you to be very precise in your descriptions since a minor error is likely to result in the target species not being listed as a potential identification. On the other hand, if you try to compensate by being more general, the resulting list is likely to be too large to be helpful. NAB1.1 tries to address this problem by asking you to place the bird into one of its visual categories. The problem is that this requires you to know something about birds. For example, if I observed a bird on land away from water, but did not know whether it was a passerine or not, I am presented with hundreds of possible choices.

"Skill Builder" is NAB1.1's quiz program. It is divided into two parts: Silhouette Spotter and Bird Identifier. In the former, you select one of four groups (eastern roadside, western roadside, shore, and flight), and are then presented with a page of silhouettes from this group and a scrollable list of answers. You have two chances to select the proper answer. If you do not do so, you are told the answer. However, after you are tested on each species, it is removed from the list. Thus, you will always get the last one correct as it is the only response left. In Bird Identifier you are shown a Peterson plate and asked to identify it. You can chose from three levels of difficulty with the lowest much too easy and the hardest having to chose from over 900 species. However, the real challenge is a result of NAB1.1 placing the card containing the potential answers over the illustration, and not permitting it to be moved. You can move the underlying plate, but this results in placing some of the other option buttons (field photo, voice, range map, and field marks) off the screen.

Peterson Multimedia Guides: North American Birds, Version 1.1 does not fully use its CD-ROM technology, relies too heavily upon the Dr. Peterson's 20^th century work, has limited listing capabilities, its Bird Finder requires knowledge its users are not likely to have, and the quizzes are weak. On a scale of 0 (truly worthless) to 10 (the outer limit of human ability), I rate this product a 5�, and generally recommend it, largely because of the work and narratives of Dr. Peterson. However, I can not help but believe that Dr. Peterson would want future generations to be at least as innovative as was he.

This is a disappointing product made all the more so because of the leadership role the National Audubon Society has played in our society this century. (I sincerely hope it will learn from this mistake, and resume its historical place in the birding community.)

Guide to North American Birds' hardware requirements are: Windows/MPC: IBM Multimedia PC or compatible; 25 MHZ 386dx or faster (486dx recommended); Windows 3.x or 95; DOS 5.0; 8Mb RAM; VGA/SVGA; 630 x 480 pixel screen; 256 color monitor; mouse; 15 Mb hard drive; MPC-compatible CD-ROM drive with at least 150Kb transfer rate (300Kb recommended); SoundBlaster Pro or compatible sound cards. Macintosh/Power PC: Powerbook 180c or higher, Macintosh II series, Quadra, Performa series; Motorola 68030 processor (68040 or Power PC recommended); 640 x 480 pixel screen; 256 color monitor; 15 Mb hard drive; System 7.0 or higher; 5Mb free RAM required (12Mb total RAM recommended); QuickTime 2.0 or higher (provided); CD-ROM drive (double speed recommended). List price is $59.95.

This is not a well thought out or made product, and is thus disappointing. It contains 723 North American birds, and offers three initial options: "Ecology", "Subject", and "Notebook". "Ecology" covers the nine major life zones and fifty-three major habitats found in North America. The opening page lists the nine life zones with a map of North America to the right and a small window above. When a life zone is highlighted, a picture of it appears in the window and the region it occupies is noted on the map. Clicking a life zone provides a brief text concerning the zone. Clicking the habitat button reveals habitats that occur within that zone. Likewise, clicking one of the habitat icons accesses a brief text about it and a list of the birds that occur in it. Clicking on the name of a bird reveals a picture of the species, and text about it and the family to which it belongs. A nice feature is that the scientific names are accompanied by phonetic pronunciations. There are also buttons to hear vocalizations, add a species to your life list, and scroll through a series of photos of all the species on the disc.

From bird photos, one can access the "Browser" which provides a screen containing 15 photos of birds, and from which you can access the "Bird Identifier" page. This page is intended to help you identify a species by making choices from up to five categories: Life Zone, Location, Shape, Size, and Color. This is a nice idea but does not work well since an inaccuracy in any of your choices (wrong size, not the right color or shape, etc.), you eliminate the bird at issue. You can reduce the likelihood of this by not using all of the categories. However, this typically results in so large a list of potential species as to be of little value. But even when you use all categories and accurately describe a species, the list can be large. For example, in describing the Gray Catbird, I selected New Jersey in summer, Perching Bird Shape, Gray Color, and 5 to 13 inches. The result was 46 species. The other problem with this "Bird Identifier" is that you need a computer to use it, which means it is useless in the field.

The second main option, "Subject", has three areas, two of which were the already discussed "Browser" and "Bird Identifier". The third, "About Birds", has 5 parts (Migration, Reproduction, Evolution, Anatomy, and Flight), each of which have video and text options. There are brief video overviews with a spoken text approximating that shown when the text button is pressed.

The third option is "Notebook", which has six subsections: Library, Preferences, Reference/Credits, Life List, Trip Builder, and Skill Builders. Library is divided into "About Birding", "About the National Audubon Society", and "Bibliography". The last two are self evident. Only the first offers any substance, and that is limited to four text programs (Identifying Birds, Finding Birds, Equipment, and Rare Birds) which offer no more than magazine articles without the convenience of that medium, and are obviously aimed at the neophyte. Preferences allows you to chose between large and small video screens and with or without help balloons. (I remain unable to determine what the latter is.) Reference/Credits is an ad for Audubon published books, and a list of those responsible for this product. Life List is a series of lists that can be used by multiple people and/or covering multiple areas (i.e.: world, state, year, etc.). However, although you can delete entries from this page, you can not make entries. These are done in another program. (This does not add to the user friendliness of this product). Trip Builder offers general information about 20 birding cites in North America north of Mexico (and may be the weakest segment of the entire disc, even though Cape May is included). Skill Builders is a good idea poorly done. It has a two parts: visual and audio. In the former, you are shown a bird photo and asked to identify it from a list. In the audio, you listen to a vocalization and are again asked to identify it from a list. The problems are: 1) you soon learn to recognize the photos (as opposed to the species); 2) you soon start making selections by process of elimination from a limited selection; and 3) the vocalizations are of very poor quality.

National Audubon Society's Interactive CD-ROM Guide to North American Birds is a disappointment. Although it has some good ideas, they are not well executed. On a scale of 0 (truly worthless) to 10 (the outer limit of human ability), I rate this product a 4, and do not recommend it as there are significantly better alternatives.

This CD-ROM has an interesting premise, but does not live up to its potential. It also offers but cursory information, some of which is inaccurate and/or misleading.

Eyewitness Virtual Reality: Bird requires an IBM compatible PC with at least a 486SX/25MHz processor, 4Mb of RAM, MPC-compatible 2X CD-ROM drive, mouse, SVGA 256 color display, sound system, and windows 3.x or 95. Its premise is that it takes you through the bird department (aviary) of a virtual museum. List price is $19.95.

The home page places you at the entrance to the aviary (where an unidentified Hoatzin flies back and forth). In the upper right is a button that in one position gives you a map (the Navigator) of the eye shaped aviary which, when clicked, enlarges to reveal the locations within. Stopping the mouse on a location identifies it. Clicking on it takes you to that item/exhibit, which range from bird art/crafts/curiosities, to displays of various families of birds, to exhibits about birds, to a museum shop, to an elevator. (The elevator has nothing to do with Eyewitness Virtual Reality: Bird. Rather, permits use of the non-bird discs in the Eyewitness Virtual Reality Eyewitness Virtual Reality series.)

If you rotate the home page button, you are presented with four additional choices: Backtrack, Help, Index, and Options. Backtrack returns you to the previous page. Help shows how to use this product, and does a reasonable job. Index is divided into main and video. The former is an alphabetical list of the exhibits and allows access to them. The latter offers brief videos, of varying quality, concerning different exhibits. Options permits you to print the images, turn the sound on and off, and shut off "transition" which increases your speed through the aviary. To the left on the home page is the museum tour board, which has five options: Introduction to the museum, Conservation, Amazing facts, Flight, and Make Your Own Tour. The Introduction gives a reasonable overview. Conservation, Amazing facts, and Flight are modestly interesting. Make Your Own Tour offers the option of saving particular routes through the museum. (This is of potentially limited value since a primary advantage of CD-ROMs is the ability to jump from one area to another, and a prearranged tour would defeat this.)

The primary problems with Eyewitness Virtual Reality: Bird are that the information presented is minimal and occasionally misleading or inaccurate. For example, in the section called" bird watching" (what we know as "birding"), it states that the two essential pieces of equipment are a notebook to record sightings and a field guide to identify the birds sighted. While many birders use a notebook, it is in no manner required. Likewise, many an experienced birder does not carry a field guide, especially when birding a known area. However, it is a rare birder who enters the field without binoculars, yet this exhibit does not even mention them.

Another example, found in the bird intelligence exhibit, is the statement: "Unlike other crows, the common raven is black all over." One could argue that this is not inaccurate as many members of the crow family are not all black (magpies, jays, etc.), but a number are, especially many called crows. If you did not already know this, you could come away with an inaccurate belief as to the color of crows. Another example is placing a nightjar exhibit within the owl exhibit suggesting that nightjars are owls.

Eyewitness Virtual Reality: Bird may be of value to 8-12 year olds with a potential interest in birds. However, should this interest begin to grow, a better product should be provided. On a scale of 0 (truly worthless) to 10 (the limit of human ability), I rate this product a 3�, and recommend it only for sub-teens without a pre-existing interest in birds.

BETTER BIRDWATCHING IN COLORADO (BBC) is a 5 volume, 2 disc CD-ROM of the birds of Colorado �primarily designed for kids and beginning/intermediate birdwatchers as a means to introduce them to the hobby of birdwatching.� Disc one (volumes 1 and 2) lists for $29.95 while disc 2 (volumes 3 to 5) lists for $39.95. Together, they list for $59.95. BBC is designed to run on both PC (IBM compatible) and MAC Computers, and plays directly from the disc (thus using minimal hard drive space). However, you have to exit one volume to access another (even if on the same disc), it can not be minimized, and it does not readily allow access to other programs while running. BBC�s PC requirements are a 486, Windows 3.1, 95, or NT; 33 MHz processor; 8 MB of Ram; 2x CD-ROM; a 640 x 480 monitor; and 256 (8 bit) color. (I ran it on Windows 98, and suspect it will also run on Windows 2000.) Its MAC requirements are 68030 (LCIII), System 7.1; 33 MHz processor; 8 MB of RAM; 2x CD-ROM; a 640 x 480 monitor; 256 (8 bit) color; and a sound card. When I first ran BBC, I did so on a 486 with a 66 MHz processor, and thought that this might have contributed to its poor performance. I have now run it on a Pentium III 500 with a 2 MB video card and 128 MB of RAM, and I must conclude that the problems detailed below are not computer related.

BBC is a low budget product with a number of photos of stuffed birds not in good condition. Unfortunately, the photos and videos of live birds are not much better as many are poorly exposed, poorly focused, show images too small to be helpful, and/or are quite shaky. For example, the flight videos of Cedar Waxwings, Rock Doves, and Pinyon Jays are almost indistinguishable. Likewise, the audio segments are generally of poor quality and too brief to be realistically useful. Other problems include a Blue Jay without head feathers which is identified as a juvenile. However, juveniles do not need to replace feathers as they but recently emerged. Also, three videos identified as immature American Tree Sparrows are immature White-crowned Sparrows. This is not to say that BBC has no good features, but there are so many poor ones that the overall effect is decidedly amateurish.

Upon opening a volume, you are shown a simulated wire-bound book. At the top are the contents of the current volume. To the right is a stop sign with left and right arrowheads, and below is a NOTES button. The arrowheads move you page at a time through the wire-bound �book�, the stop sign lets you exit the program, and the NOTES button provides you with a blank page for recording notes. The center of this page contains a scenic picture. In the bottom center is the Main Menu which contains three options: Alphabetical Index, Checklist Index, and Virtual Bird Quiz. Clicking one accesses the identified sub-program. The indices allow you to access the families and covered species.

Each family page contains a background illustration of a species in that family as well as general status, coloration, anatomy, sound, habitat, behavior information and/or links plus 3 blue and 2 red code letters. In blue are P for Picture, A for Audio, and V for Video; in red are U for Unusual and R for Rare. These codes also appear, as applicable, next to the species listed on this page. However, the codes reveal another weakness of BBC, namely that there are neither illustrations nor sounds for a various �covered� species. Clicking on a species takes you to it. To illustrate, I will look at the mergansers.

INDEX