Author: Rosen, Jonathan

Jonathan Rosen is one of America's 46 million bird-watchers. But in this genre-bending book, he sets out on a quest not merely to see birds but to fathom their meaning - historical and literary, spiritual and scientific - to a culture torn between the desire both to conquer and to conserve. Bird-watching, Rosen argues, is our real national pastime, in which we are both players and spectators. The outcome, since bird and watcher are intimately connected, is literally a matter of life and death. 304 pp. February.