Smithsonian Book of Giant Pandas by Susan Lumpkin and John Seidensticker, Smithsonian Institution Press, £30.50, ISBN 1588340384
North American Tree Squirrels by Michael Steele and John Koprowski, Smithsonian Institution Press, £17.95, ISBN 1560989866
GOOD names sell. Few people took notice when a 19th-century biologist described the Bicoloured Bear, an odd new Chinese “carnivore” just received from the indefatigable Père David (of deer fame). But when the name changed to the Giant Panda “Panda-monium” broke out, in the word of one newspaper describing the reception of the first live panda at Washington’s National Zoo.
Giant Panda is a compact…
