A sumptuous volume by this name, with hand-painted full-page
illustrations of eggs and nests and an elaborate commentary, was
produced by a family of prodigies from Circleville, Ohio.  It is in many
senses a companion volume to John James Audubon's illustrated work on
the birds of America.  Only about a hundred copies of this extraordinary
hand-made work were produced, and only a few dozen are known to be in
existence today.
     Joy Kiser, once librarian at the Cleveland Museum of Natural
History, later on the staff of the Smithsonian Institution, has written
a valuable companion to this work, "America's Other Audubon," which
reproduces the illustrations in color and provides the moving story of
the efforts and sacrifices of the Jones family in seeing it through the
long and costly--in life and treasure--effort of its production. You can
see scans of the original rare book at
http://archive.org/details/Illustrationsne1Jone .
A page from the Smithsonian on the Jones's work is at
http://www.sil.si.edu/ondisplay/nestsandeggs/  .  An announcement from
the publisher is at
http://www.papress.com/html/book.details.page.tpl?isbn=9781616890599  .
     Illustrated guides to birds' eggs have been suppressed since the
banning of trade in eggs, so here is help. Here also is a stirring story
of sacrifice by a rural family to produce a work that brought high
praise from the nation's foremost ornithologists. Here is a story from
an era in Ohio when birds were more various and closer to human lives,
and Kiser's book brings it all to life.
Bill Whan
Columbus

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