Vulture

Starred review from March 15, 2017

Naturalist and bird rehabilitator Fallon (Cerulean Blues: A Personal Search for a Vanishing Songbird) presents an entertaining, well-researched title that nominally concerns the familiar turkey vulture but ranges widely, incorporating up-to-date information on condors and vultures worldwide, especially in California, India, and southern Africa. Fallon also delves into vulture folklore and the bird's place in history, mythology, and archaeological settings such as Sumer (modern-day southern Iraq), Native American sites, ancient Egypt, and the Battle of Gettysburg. She displays great passion and enthusiasm yet writes knowingly and dispassionately on the science of her subject in an engaging, literary style. The author describes her and her veterinarian husband's work rehabilitating injured birds, never skimping on complex technological and medical details. VERDICT Of interest to all naturalists, veterinarians, and birders. There is much here for professional biologists, too, and even historians.--Henry T. Armistead, formerly with Free Lib. of Philadelphia

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