Good. Well-written and interesting. At the beginning, the author takes several unnecessary shots at the Genesis account of how animals got their names, then almost immediately talks about how some of the common names are so old that nobody knows how they got their names. Bogs down in the middle with account after account of men who described birds, attempted to makes lists of birds, and tried to bring conformity to the official names. Very interesting when he concentrates on individual birds and how they got named. Ends up with some interesting stuff on how changing the old names wipes out history—interesting in view of the recent decision by idiots in American ornithology who intend to change the names of dozens of American birds because they're named after White people.