Vanishing Wings: A Tale of Three Birds of Prey. Illustrated by John Hamberger.

New York: Franklin Watts, Inc., 1972. Signed by the Author, with Sanibel-Captiva, on ffep. Octavo, gray cloth (hardcover), 149 pp. Very Good, with light foxing (age darkened spotting) in a Very Good dust jacket with edgewear. From dust jacket: The setting for this novel is the future, the immediate future. The main characters are three native American birds -- an eagle, a falcon, and an osprey. These species have not yet vanished from our environment, but unless there are drastic changes in man’s activities, their extinction cannot be far off. Mr. Bancroft tells the individual stories of each of the birds. Their feeding habits and migratory patterns and mating procedures provide fascinating background, but the focus is on the constant battle for survival as the poisons of insecticides creep higher and higher up the food chain. The story is a compelling one, but it is not always pleasant. The reader is able to see how the killing of aphids in a small cornfield by DDT can affect birds and animals hundreds of miles away. The cyclical effect of poisons causing slightly impaired agility in the birds which leads to the seeking of defective prey which in turn leads to further buildup of poisons in their systems is portrayed in a dramatic and enlightening manner. The impact exceeds that of the most alarming scientific treatise on the subject of vanishing species.