Sálim Ali, without question India’s greatest ornithologist, was a prolific writer. Apart from his many books (the best known being The Book of Indian Birds), he wrote a large number of scientific papers, essays, and popular articles for a variety of journals, and magazines. He also broadcast radio talks and gave public lectures as well as interviews.

This body of Sálim Ali’s work has never before been gathered together into a book.This first-time collection of all these shorter writings, painstakingly ferreted out and put together by Sálim Ali’s former student Tara Gandhi (with the permission of the Bombay Natural History Society, Sálim Ali’s intellectual and spiritual home for many years), presents a fascinating array of topics as diverse as the Indian landscapes and birdlife that were his passion. Whether it is the colours of a bird's feathers or the ecology of the Himalaya mountains or an insightful conservation message, Salim Ali’s evocative writing style makes reading this volume enormously pleasurable.

Of its intellectual and academic importance to the world’s ornithologists, to India’s scientists, and to all bird lovers, there can be no doubt.