Amphibians and Reptiles of Pennsylvania and the Northeast (Comstock Book in Hereptology)

Rating:
Summary: Very Good For Pennsylvania Identification of R & A
Review: The Book is very good for identifing PA species. It contains a good set of color plates, a identication key and text describing the species. The text describing reproduction and habitat is also quite good. The downside of the book is the range maps. Inside of PA the author uses dots at specific locations, outside of Pa the author shades the area that the species occurs in. The specific location dots in PA are not complete. Overall I would recomend this book for people who wish to learn about and identify Pennsylvania's Reptiles and Amphibians.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing, but probably adequate for most people
Review: The maps of this book are too difficult to read, and while there are numerous references to specific Pennsylvania counties, there is no map of the counties for which to refer. The subtitle, "and the Northeast" seems to have been an afterthought. Little attention is given to the region outside of Pennsylvania. Most disappointing are glaring omissions, such as the absence of the Tiger Salamander from the key to salamander larvae. The formatting of the text is unfriendly and it is difficult to quickly flip to a species account, as the headings are of the same font and set off very little from the rest of the text. The original morphometric data in the appendix is one nice feature of the book.