The Mallee-Fowl is a book published by Angus & Robertson

Angus & Robertson

Angus & Robertson is a bookstore chain in Australia. Its first bookstore was opened in 110½ Market Street, Sydney by Scotsman David Angus in 1884; it sold second-hand books. In 1886, he went into partnership with fellow Scot, George Robertson with whom he had worked earlier.- Bookselling history...

 in 1962, with the subtitle The Bird that Builds an Incubator. It was authored by Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n ornithologist

Ornithology

Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and the aesthetic appeal of birds...

 Harry Frith

Harold James Frith

Harold James Frith AO was an Australian administrator and ornithologist. He was born at Kyogle, New South Wales and studied Agricultural Science at Sydney University. He first joined the CSIRO Division of Plant Industry but later transferred to the Division of Wildlife and carried out extensive...

. It was issued in octavo

Octavo

Octavo to is a technical term describing the format of a book.Octavo may also refer to:* Octavo is a grimoire in the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett...

 format (224 x 140 mm), containing 148 pages, bound in dark red cloth with a dust jacket

Dust jacket

The dust jacket of a book is the detachable outer cover, usually made of paper and printed with text and illustrations. This outer cover has folded flaps that hold it to the front and back book covers...

 illustrated by a photograph of a Malleefowl

Malleefowl

The Malleefowl is a stocky ground-dwelling Australian bird about the size of a domestic chicken...

. The book contains numerous black-and-white

Black-and-white

Black-and-white, often abbreviated B/W or B&W, is a term referring to a number of monochrome forms in visual arts.Black-and-white as a description is also something of a misnomer, for in addition to black and white, most of these media included varying shades of gray...

 photographs by the author, and is dedicated to "Joe" (one of the subjects of Frith’s research).

The book was reviewed in the Emu

Emu (journal)

Emu, subtitled Austral Ornithology, is the peer-reviewed scientific journal of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union. The journal was established in 1901 and is the oldest ornithological journal published in Australia...

by Jack Jones (as J.J.), who says:

"The Mallee-Fowl" is an important work in Australian ornithology. It is the first book for public appraisal of a life history obtained by extensive and methodic research in field and laboratory. Its subject – an extraordinary bird species now moving towards rarity through man’s indifference – requires such a public book in support of a major and urgent conservation task revealed. The research was done by Frith during 1951 to 1958, at first in private week-end activity, then as a project of the Wildlife Survey Section (now the Division of Wildlife Research, of which Frith is the Chief) of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, with assistance at times by colleagues."

"The Mallee-Fowl" is subtitled "The Bird that Builds an Incubator". Frith’s research was centred on the incubating mound in methodic enquiry of cycle and control; and from that real dominance the enquiry circled out to obtain and collate the remaining substance of life history into relativity, including conservation problems in predation, grazing and clearing for farming. Development of census methods was a necessary corollary. The book bears the research accent by being concerned mainly with life-history detail and gaining of knowledge. It also includes adequate comparison with the other Megapode species, notably the Brush-Turkey and Jungle-Fowl; it speculates briefly on the origin and development of mound incubation in an arid climate; and concludes with a succinct chapter of emphatic appeal for conservation of the Mallee-Fowl."