The History of the Tree Sparrow in Japan by Fumio Taguchi

This is a most unusual book . The initial text in in Japanese, followed by a rather shorter English version, with 26 pages full of small colour illustrations and finally many pages of notes, the majority in Japanese but with some English translations . This review is based solely on the English text as I have no knowledge of Japanese . The book is written in an informal, conversational style which is perhaps a little unusual in a hard-back book and the author takes a very personal approach to the subject . His English is a little idiosyncratic but the meaning is usually apparent and I found it quite easy to read .