General

eNature.com, 2000. (http://www.enature.com) This website covers a broad range of topics, from mammals to marine life to wildflowers. It is very easy to navigate, has terrific photos, and is very inclusive. Give this one a look.

Mammals
Walker's Mammals of the World (5th ed.), by Ronald M. Nowak. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991. This is a wonderful two volume reference for anything having to do with mammals. Be warned, it is one of those books that you can get lost in. It has pictures of virtually every mammal on the planet. However, it is not a field guide.

National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mammals (revised ed), by John O. Whitaker, Jr. Chanticleer Press, 1996. This is an excellent compact reference that includes all of the essential information for species identification. The writing is concise and does not go into extreme detail. There are hundreds of color photos, but not all species have them.

Mammals of the Eastern United States (3rd ed.), by John O. Whitaker, Jr. and William J. Hamilton, Jr. Cornell University, 1998. This is one of the most complete sources of information on mammals you can find. There are several pages of text on each species, with detailed information ranging from a species' effects on humans to the arrangement of teeth in its mouth. The downside is the lack of color photos.

Reptiles and Amphibians
The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Reptiles and Amphibians, by John L. Behler and F. Wayne King, Chanticleer Press, 1979. This is an excellent compact reference that includes all of the essential information for species identification. The writing is concise and does not go into extreme detail. There are hundreds of color photos, but not all species have them.

Birds
The Audubon Society's Master Guide to Birding, by John Farrand, Jr., Editor. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1983. This 3 volume reference gives in depth descriptions of every bird in North America. It organizes birds by family so that they are easy to find and compare. Also, the pictures are wonderful. It is an excellent resource, but it's a little hefty to carry out into the field.

A Field Guide to the Birds, by Roger Tory Peterson. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1934. This book gives the distinguishable marks and a description of calls for many birds in North America. It's good for carrying around in the field but it's not the best resource if you are looking for detail.

Cornell Lab of Ornithology Website, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, 2000. (http://www.birds.cornell.edu) This page is a great resource. It gives many in-depth descriptions of North American birds, their origins and behavior. You can search by taxonomic or alphabetical listing. It is an excellent reference if you want more detail about a bird's lifestyle.

Insects and other Arthropods
An Introduction to the Study of Insects (4th ed.), by Donald J. Borror, Dwight M. DeLong, and Charles A. Triplehorn. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1976. For a detailed description of almost every bug alive refer to this book. It isn't the easiest book to follow or use but gives all the information you would need to identify a bug.

Bugs of the World, by George C. McGavin. Blanford, 1993. This book has amazing pictures and fairly good detail but it is not encyclopedic. Take it out for interest and pleasure but not as a teaching tool.

A Peterson Guide: A Field Guide to the Insects, by Donald J. Borror and Richard E. White. 1970. If you want to look up something about a particular insect then this guide is useful, but for anything else it is confusing and not organized well for easy reference.

Small Plants
Newcomb's Guide to Wildflowers, by Lawrence Newcomb. Little, Brown and Company Inc., 1977. This is by far the best book to use to identify small flowering plants. It has an easy-to-use key and has illustrations that show important characteristics used in identifying small flowering plants. This Guide also includes some flowering shrubs and vines. Carry this along with you out into the field.

Wildflowers of the Eastern United States, by Wilbur H. and Marion B. Duncan. University of Georgia Press, 1999. This is a great book for browsing and enjoying pictures of plants that you have already identified. It contains wonderful photography but is not easy to use and doesn't really serve a purpose when you are looking for an unknown plant.

Trees
The Complete Trees of North America Field Guide and Natural History, by Thomas S. Elias. Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1980. The illustrations and tree family key are very helpful if you have some time to flip through the book. The use of each type of tree is well worth the read.

A Peterson Guide: A Field Guide to Trees and Shrubs (2nd ed.), by George A. Petrides. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1972. Pity the tree that gave its life to make this field guide. While it is moderately useful in identifying trees that that have already been identified, the organization of this 'guide' makes it more useful as a coaster than an identification tool.

A Peterson Guide: Eastern Trees, by George A. Petrides. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998. Color leaf illustrations are quite nice and are separated into easy to understand categories. This guide, physically compact and succinct in text, is certainly the best guide to carry out into the field. However, Stonehill's campus has a number of horticultural trees that cannot be found in this guide.

Manual of Woody Landscape Plants (5th ed.), by Michael A. Dirr. Stipes Publishing L. L. C., 1998. This is a mammoth text that is best used by landscapers and only helpful if you know what you are looking at. It is organized by scientific name and includes horticultural variations of trees. A newcomer to botany would find this book to be a great crash course in technical verbiage.