You will find the Ornithologist James Bond's old employer, Philadelphia's Academy of Natural Sciences does not sell copies of this book. They will sell you Herbert Raffaele's updated version of this book instead.
Why?
Because, it is at least from the 1930. it contains information which is seriously dated. Not to mention that the pictures are mostly in black and white with only about 10 colour plates. The pictures that are contained in the volume are not very representative of the birds you will encounter.
This book is acceptable if you intend on bird watching on your caribbean holiday, but we spent much of our time guessing if we were really looking at a bird. Yes, you can take a book of Eastern US birds with you, but do you want to take a birdwatching library with you on your holiday? Not to mention there are birds which will not show up in a US Bird book (e.g., bananaquit and parrots).
You will notice that the most effusive reviews of this book come from fans of Ian Fleming's 007, not bird watchers. That is because this book is much more a piece of 007 trivia than useful to modern bird watchers.
The story of How Ian Fleming's agent was named was that Fleming was at Goldeneye, his Jamaican house, and needed a name for the protagonist of his spy novel. Fleming wanted a plain name and his eye came upon his copy of James Bond's "Birds of the West Indies", which Fleming described as his bible. Fleming thought that James Bond would be the perfect name for his spy (No, Audobon would not have been a possibility). Mr. Fleming paid the ornithologist a dollar a year for the privilege of using the name James Bond in his novels.
Serious bird watchers are better served buying Herbert Raffaele's updated version of this book or James Kavanagh's "Caribbean Birds".
You could also be sentimental and want this because it was what you used when you were young during the period that this version of "Birds of the West Indies" was the only show in town.
In case you haven't guessed, I am both a bird watcher and James Bond fan who owns two copies of this book. Consider this review with that in mind.
