I think it makes sense to start a new thread for discussing the pros and cons of these newest New Guinea FGs. Some discussion on the Pratt/Beehler (2nd ed.) book (PRINCETON) has been going on here: http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=226752&highlight=new+guinea+birds&page=2, and some advance discussions about the LYNX book by Phil Gregory is in the "most anticipated" thread. But to do a comparative thing, I think those threads are not focussing enough on the two books.
OK, just a quick start: I got my Phil Gregory book today, and unlike what I normally do, I first went to look at the index. Lynx has had an unfortunate index record lately, with essentially unusable compilations regarding common names both in the "Spain" and the "Indonesian Archipelago" books. So how about the newest Lynx book? It is definitely by far better!! This index can be used, though it is much less detailed than the one in the Pratt/Beehler book. One now finds entries for tern, owl, boobook, duck, eagle, oystercatcher, to just name a very few. So essentially, there are entries for groups like what is used in a quick-find index. But they are spread through the regular index, of course. I have not made a thorough check, but noted that "harrier" is not listed, as the only one among those I tried. In the Pratt/Beehler book, the species are listed in the traditional way, thus within the white-eyes, the species are listed alphabetically, whereas the Lynx book has the general white-eye entry, plus all the species are spread all over the index by their first name, Biak under B, to White-throated under Y. But from the White-eye entry (p. 402) it's no problem to leaf through to find the rest.
Now to some more personal remarks: Both books have fine illustrations, those in the Pratt/Beehler volume are generally larger. Mostly, I prefer the ones in the Gregory book though. But they both have their strengths and weaknesses. One very basic difference is that the new book has the well proven FG format with pictures, text and range maps all on the same double page spread. The Pratt/Beehler book has only very brief text on that spread plus a more elaborate text further back in the book. As a consequence, the plates in the Pratt/Beehler book are usually much more crowded. That may have the benefit of having more species to immediately compare, but often the plates are definitely more confusing. Add to this the fact that species names are only on the text page, whereas the illustrations only have a number. For a novice, that makes it harder to become familiar with the species. And if I were to use the Pratt/Beehler book for a visit, I would have to draw separation lines to get a reasonable overview of which illustrations belong together.
As for size, the newer book is just slightly larger, with the majority of the difference coming from the robust hard cover. I think for actual field use, a soft-cover edition would be more convenient, whereas the present version is great for library use. The Pratt/Beehler book is quite a bit thicker, despite being soft-cover. That is due to the more elaborate text. Weights are 1200 grams for the Pratt/Beehler book, and 1113 grams for the Gregory one.
OK, just a quick start: I got my Phil Gregory book today, and unlike what I normally do, I first went to look at the index. Lynx has had an unfortunate index record lately, with essentially unusable compilations regarding common names both in the "Spain" and the "Indonesian Archipelago" books. So how about the newest Lynx book? It is definitely by far better!! This index can be used, though it is much less detailed than the one in the Pratt/Beehler book. One now finds entries for tern, owl, boobook, duck, eagle, oystercatcher, to just name a very few. So essentially, there are entries for groups like what is used in a quick-find index. But they are spread through the regular index, of course. I have not made a thorough check, but noted that "harrier" is not listed, as the only one among those I tried. In the Pratt/Beehler book, the species are listed in the traditional way, thus within the white-eyes, the species are listed alphabetically, whereas the Lynx book has the general white-eye entry, plus all the species are spread all over the index by their first name, Biak under B, to White-throated under Y. But from the White-eye entry (p. 402) it's no problem to leaf through to find the rest.
Now to some more personal remarks: Both books have fine illustrations, those in the Pratt/Beehler volume are generally larger. Mostly, I prefer the ones in the Gregory book though. But they both have their strengths and weaknesses. One very basic difference is that the new book has the well proven FG format with pictures, text and range maps all on the same double page spread. The Pratt/Beehler book has only very brief text on that spread plus a more elaborate text further back in the book. As a consequence, the plates in the Pratt/Beehler book are usually much more crowded. That may have the benefit of having more species to immediately compare, but often the plates are definitely more confusing. Add to this the fact that species names are only on the text page, whereas the illustrations only have a number. For a novice, that makes it harder to become familiar with the species. And if I were to use the Pratt/Beehler book for a visit, I would have to draw separation lines to get a reasonable overview of which illustrations belong together.
As for size, the newer book is just slightly larger, with the majority of the difference coming from the robust hard cover. I think for actual field use, a soft-cover edition would be more convenient, whereas the present version is great for library use. The Pratt/Beehler book is quite a bit thicker, despite being soft-cover. That is due to the more elaborate text. Weights are 1200 grams for the Pratt/Beehler book, and 1113 grams for the Gregory one.
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