| Collins Butterfly Guide: The Most Complete Field Guide to the Butterflies of Britain and Europe | 
 enlarge | Authors: Tom Tolman, Richard Lewington
Publisher: Collins
Category: Book
List Price: £25.00
Buy New: £13.75
You Save: £11.25 (45%)
New (27) Used (6) from £12.93
Avg. Customer Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 21574
Media: Hardcover
Edition: New Ed
Pages: 400
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.8
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.7 x 1.5
ISBN: 0007242344
Dewey Decimal Number: 595.789094
EAN: 9780007242344
ASIN: 0007242344
Publication Date: May 6, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand new hardback dispatched from the UK
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| Customer Reviews:
 Wake-up Collins! June 15, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I couldn't agree more with the reviews so far. I've written to Collins about the errors but received no reply. With an interest in all forms of wildlife/photography I try to buy the best ID books available for the knowledge they contain. I was looking forward to this new edition for my bookshelf but quickly returned it asking for a refund. Surely a book of this calibre should have been proof-read more carefully. One of the white butterfly plates was also bitmapped. A pity that such editorial errors has let down Lewington's articulate artwork.
 Looking good (on the surface) May 15, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
In common with the first review of the book, no sooner had I opened it than I was finding distribution maps with the incorrect species caption (the Apollo's and Festoon's are all over the place - hence the Spanish Festoon does not appear to be found in Spain according to it's map!). However I can see nothing wrong (yet) with the illustrations which seem fine. I was also glad to see that descriptions are invariably opposite the illustration of the species they refer to which I believe was not the case in a previous edition of the book. However I still find it hard to take that a book of this standing can have such glaring mistakes (with more to be found?)
This could have been so much more May 2, 2008
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
Having had the first edition of this book since it was hot off the press, I was eagerly waiting this latest installment; however, I am very disappointed by this edition.
It was heralded as the 'most complete guide' by the publishers; but, it is no more complete than it was in its first incarnation.
Tolman had a golden opportunity to update and improve on the best field guide to the European butterflies ever written. But he has chosen not to. The only changes are to the text/plate layout. There is no mention of the new species discovered in the past 11 years or of any distributional changes. A classic example being Real's Wood White which was found in Ireland in 2001: a species he had 8 years in which to update the text and distribution map!!!
I feel that the rendition of the plates is poorer and the figures appear slightly grainy in comparison to the original. Further why were the missing species not illustrated for the first time? At least in the original edition they were clearly marked 'not illustrated', in this book the reader has to find this out for themselves by frustratingly looking at the figures. As for errors, I have been so unimpressed by the book overall, that I have not exhaustively read it - the text appears identical to the original anyway! However, I did find it odd that the False Apollo was inserted in the Parnassius, out of any logical taxonomic order, and to compound this it is designated the 'False Festoon' on its map!
Overall, a nice book if one does not have the original, but to buy it to update your knowledge from the first edition - forget it. I would encourage anybody to search out a second hand copy of the 1997 edition, it is a better book.
I will be giving mine away, such is my disappointment.
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