The involvement of humans with ducks, geese and swans has probably been closer than with any other group of birds, today and for several millenia past. This involvement, in its many aspects, is the theme of this compelling and readable account by an Assistant Director of the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust. Dr Kear ranges widely, from a summary of the taxonomy and natural history of wildfowl, through a history of domestication world wide, to wildfowling, decoys, conservation and captive breeding, conflicts with agriculture, and wildfowl in legend and literature. Throughout, the text abounds with...

Dr Janet Kear, Assistant Director of the Wildfowl Trust and Curator of its Martin Mere Reserve, and Professor Andrew Berger of the University of Hawaii, have written a timely and absorbing account of the recent history of the Hawaiian Goose, or Nene, its descent to near extinction, its eleventh hour rescue and current restoration to the wild. The species declined from an estimated population of 25,000 in Hawaii in the 18th century to less than fifty birds in the 1940s. Today, thanks largely to the extended breeding programmes at Slimbridge and Pohakuloa, there are probably more than 2000...