With a few exceptions, the main identification section (the species descriptions) of Complete British Coastal Wildlife has been designed so that the text follows the main photographs for each species; special features, relevant to identification, have sometimes been added; some species are depicted entirely as cut-out photographs. The text has been written to complement the information conveyed by the photographs. By and large, the order in which the species appear in the main section of the book roughly follows standard classification.
THE CHOICE OF SPECIES
Coastal wildlife is such a huge subject that selecting an appropriate array of species was always going to be hard. And Complete British Coastal Wildlife is not just a book about seashore life: it caters for readers with a whole range of interests. While selecting the species and planning the book’s content we had in the back of our minds an imaginary family spending a couple of weeks’ holiday on the coast. They might spend one day rock-pooling, the next visiting a seabird colony; at other times they might spend hours watching waders on an estuary, studying coastal flowers or just beachcombing. The choice of species in part reflects the diversity of life on the coast but also the many alternative delights it has to offer the visitor.
SPECIES DESCRIPTIONS
At the start of each species description the most commonly used and current English name is given. This is followed by the scientific name of the species in question, which comprises the species’ genus name first, followed by its specific name. In a few instances, reference is made, either in the species heading or the main body of the text, to a further subdivision – subspecies – where this is pertinent.
The text has been written in as concise a manner as possible. Each description begins with a summary of the species in question. For some groups, such as birds, the species descriptions are necessarily complicated because the subjects themselves are complex. In these instances, to avoid potential ambiguities, subheadings break up the rest of each species’ description. Different subheadings are used for different divisions within the natural world. For example, in the section covering birds, typical subheadings would be ADULT MALE, ADULT FEMALE, JUVENILE, VOICE and STATUS; for the section on invertebrates, typical subheadings might include ADULT, LARVA and STATUS; and for the section covering wildflowers, typical subheadings might include FLOWERS, FRUITS, LEAVES and STATUS. With seashore plants and animals, the zone at which they are found is described using the following terms: splash zone, upper shore, middle shore, lower shore and shallow sub-littoral (just below the lowest spring tide).
INTRODUCTORY SPREADS
Throughout the book, each significant division within the natural world has a dedicated introductory section; in the majority of cases, two pages are allocated to this. These sections are lavishly illustrated and the straightforward text helps the reader understand the group’s natural history and its significance to coastal ecology.
PHOTOGRAPHS
Great care has gone into the selection of photographs for this book and in many cases the images have been taken specifically for this project. Preference was given to photographs that serve both to illustrate key identification features of a given species, and to emphasise its beauty. In many instances, smaller inset photographs illustrate features useful for identification that are not shown clearly by the main image.