Culled from the letters, diaries, and ornithological observations of John Muir, John James Audubon, Wordsworth, and Teddy Roosevelt--among other lesser-known naturalists--this illustrated treasury of bird-watching literature addresses migration, nests, flight, and a wide variety of exotic and ordinary species. 15,000 first printing. People have been watching birds and studying their ways since the dawn of humankind. Birdwatching as we know it, however, is a fairly recent invention; in her introduction to this fine anthology, Jen Hill traces it to the English naturalist and philosopher Sir Thomas Browne, who in 1662 put together an annotated list of the birds of Norfolk, having wandered through the marshes and fields to observe their habits. Countless writers have followed in Browne's footsteps, and Hill brings many of them--Browne included--to this nicely portable collection of excerpts from the literature of birdwatching. Among the contributors are the ever-quotable English traveler W.H. Hudson, who took an interest in birds wherever he went, from the jungles of the Amazon to the suburbs of London; Irene Grosvenor Wheelock, whose Birds of California remains a popular reference nearly a century after its first publication; and Oliver Goldsmith, the Georgian writer, who describes the many connections that join birds and other animals to humans. Organized by theme--for instance, migration and bird physiology--Hill's anthology mingles scientific observation, folklore, memoir, and literary essay to make a pleasing, commonplace book. It's a welcome addition to the birdwatcher's bookshelf. --Gregory McNamee A diverting collection of brief pieces drawn primarily from British and American works of the 19th and early 20th centuries. As Hill, a doctoral candidate in literature at Cornell, notes, these writings ``remind us both of our past and of the timeless pleasure of birdwatching.'' Her selections are from the writings of such well-known literary figures as Lewis Carroll, Robert Louis Stevenson, Wordsworth, Goldsmith, and Browning, and of acute observers of nature like Audubon, Thoreau, and John Muir. The journals of a very young Theodore Rooseveltwho records collecting old nests but not eggsare also quoted. Most of the selections, however, are from unfamiliar sources, some of whom are given brief biographies in the back of the book. Hill groups her selections into a variety of overlapping categories: bird activities, such as nest building and migration; birds in particular habitats, such as sea and shore, woodland and meadow; kinds of birds, e.g., raptors and hummingbirds. Other chapters focus on songs, eggs, physiology, and extinction. Selections range from philosophical musings to matter-of-fact physical descriptions to emotional outbursts to play-by-play action reports. One indignant 18th-century birdwatcher calls the eagle an ``execrable tyrant,'' while a 19th-century one accuses the sparrow hawk of being a ``feathered freebooter..'' More in keeping with today's less anthropomorphic view of birds is a vivid description by an early 20th-century observer who witnessed an encounter between two nesting crows and an intruding squirrel that left the nest untouched and the squirrel battered and bloody. This is a book to browse in, to pick up and put down, again and again. While its not necessary to be a birder to enjoy this small collection, it would be a welcome addition to the library of anyone who is. (23 b&w illustrations) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. Jen Hill is a graduate of Stanford University and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Literature at Cornell. She lives in Ithaca, New York.