Birds of River Tama (=Tamagawa No Tori)

Pp. (2), 177, (1); 1 color frontispiece map, 600+ black-and-white photos and 4 color plates taken by the author. Publisher’s original dark blue cloth, lettered in light blue in Japanese on the spine and front cover and blind-stamped in English on the front cover, color pictorial dust jacket, in cardboard slipcase with black paper title/author label, 4to (12 x 8.5 inches). The text is in English and in Japanese in parallel columns. The River Tama is the river that meanders along the runways of Tokyo Haneda Airport. The Lower Tama runs through the crowded houses and factories of two large cities, Tokyo and Kawasaki, and flows into Tokyo Bay. This volume describes the birdlife during their breeding season on the river beaches of the Lower Tama River. The dramatic photos taken by the author accurately depict the birds, eggs and habitats, often in close-up photos. The front endpaper has a label that reads “With the Compliments of Japan Publications Trading Company, Tokyo, Japan.” From the research library of ornithologist Oliver L. Austin (past Director of the Austin Ornithological Research Center in Wellfleet, Massachusetts and past Curator of Ornithology at the Florida Museum of Natural History), with his rectangular Japanese/English name-stamp seal on the front endpaper.