Review from Nick Zarlinga
There was some talk recently on the list regarding the book so I thought I'd
give a quick review. The publisher contacted us and was very generous to
provide copies for the auction.
In looking at the book, it is relatively small, on the order of a Peterson's
field guide. Its arrangement is a bit different than Peterson's in that
each family has a key, then the pictorial identification and subsequent
description of the species. Before this, there is even a key to families to
get you in the right part of the book. The descriptions are thorough, and
it also gives whether it is common or not, a brief description of the
habitat it is found in, and also diets. There is also a range map which
includes Indiana watersheds. One thing that I thought was interesting was
that there is a chart early in the book with each species of Indiana fishes
which depicts what habitat it is located in (lowland, upland, big river,
stream, creek, lacustrine, subterranean), and which of the six major Indiana
drainages the species is found in. Within the drainages, it also indicates
whether the fish is extirpated, extinct, it is a native species, introduced,
or possibly introduced but considered native. A neat little "at a glance"
touch I thought to the standard field guide. It also gives a light lesson
on the natural history of the area, with an indication that a natural
history text is still in the works. There are a couple of small chapters
describing how to collect fish and equipment, methods for counting and
measuring fish traits, and also some info on preservation for study. One of
the neat features is a chapter on "Distinguishing Characters and Pictorial
Guide to Early Life History Stages of Fish Families". Sort of neat in a
field guide. The pics are about 90 to 95% Joe Tomelleri drawings, that says
enough of course. The remaining pics are misc photos with just the fish
(some may be preserved) and cut out so there is no background. Some of
these are pretty bad but really there are only a few so it only contributes
some inconsistency to the illustration collection and that is about it. The
author decided not to go with the arrows indicating distinguishing features
that many other guides use (such as Peterson's) which I personally find
helpful, but that is a chronic debate in these guides it seems, a decision
that some like and other don't. There is however pics and drawings of
sucker lips and lamprey mouths for better help in identification. Finally,
towards the end of the book there is a top 10 fishing sites map indicating
where the best places to catch some of the sport fish of the state, as well
as a global and state chart of about 70 of the state's fish weight records
including catch location.
Here are my only negatives:
1. As I've said, I like arrows indicating defining characteristics of
a species. Just my opinion.
2. Inconsistency in pics, some fabulous drawings and some mediocre
pics. Not a huge distraction though.
3. The species description paragraph is detailed, but it is not
separated into headings. The species description, abundance, habitat
description and diet are all in the paragraph. I tend to like a heading for
the info so that I can quickly go to which ever piece of info that I am
looking for. I suspect that this arrangement would add to the physical
length of the paragraph.
4. My biggest piece that it missing is that there is not designation of
"similar species". If there are a couple of species that are similar, I'd
like to have them pointed out to me so that I can quickly find the similar
species and compare descriptions for identification.
5. There are no larger maps indicating range beyond the state borders.
There is text indicating range in the description paragraphs but I tend to
find this method a bit clumsy. I can live with this though.
These are really my only critiques. They certainly are not anything to keep
me from buying the book. All in all the book is great. I love the size,
the color illustrations, the keys, and especially the $22 list price.
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