Vintage Birds: A Guidebook And Matching Game by Roger J. Lederer

For someone who’s not terribly outdoorsy, I really enjoy birds. I love bird art and have somehow, over the years, amassed a shocking amount of knowledge for someone who’s never really studied birds outside of appreciating their artistic depictions. I mean, I recently made it to the Championships of the latest Birds Mini League on Learned League, against some really smart people who’ve probably researched birds quite seriously! Is this all Howard Norman‘s fault? Who can say?

So when I was offered this matching game with accompanying guidebook, I was all in. I’ve been desperate to impart my love of reading and of birds to my kids, so this seemed like the perfect way to do both! We’re definitely still working on the reading part, but I do feel that I’m making gains on getting them to appreciate avian beauty, especially with the help of this charmingly illustrated deck and its beautiful renditions of vintage art by two of the most well-respected bird artists in history, John and Elizabeth Gould.

There are 50 sturdy tarot-sized cards in the deck, featuring 25 of the most beautiful birds in the world. The deck comes with an 80-page guidebook in a gorgeous foiled presentation case that elevates this to a truly luxe gift standard. The interior of the box is done up in red and white art deco botanicals: not perhaps the most fitting scheme, but still a lovely choice that offsets the deck and guidebook’s primary colors of tan and green.

The matching game can be played as simply or complexly as you’d like. My kids and I play the most basic version of it, ofc, and have had lots of fun pitting our memories against one another’s as we race to collect as many pairs of cards as we can. The pictures and names help keep things memorable, tho I will say that 50 is rather an odd number for a matching game: you can only really split that into 10 rows or columns of 5, which is kind of a pain on a card table, or a more standard 6×8 with two outlying cards, which is what we usually went with. That aside, this game was a joy to play, and my kids certainly enjoyed sharpening their mental skills as they raced to beat dear old Mom.

The guidebook lists, ofc, rules and variants for play, then delves into the lives of the Goulds before offering some delightfully meaty information on the birds displayed on the cards. I will offer the correction that the word cockatoo, while indeed originating from the Malay, does not mean “vice or grip” as the book suggests, but instead derives from the colloquial for “older sister” and usually refers to an honored older woman. Speaking of women, I’m still aggrieved at the early loss of Elizabeth. I’m so glad she had what looks like a fulfilling life and am also so grateful that advances in medicine, health and education have made it so that women are less likely to die nowadays of complications of childbirth, despite the resurgence of ignorance threatening to take over in far too many places of the world.

Anyway, this is a fantastic, beautiful gift for anyone who likes birds or games, and definitely something to consider for the upcoming holiday season. It’s both easy to play and deeply informative, and can be appreciated on multiple levels by all kinds of people. Recommended.

Vintage Birds: A Guidebook And Matching Game by Roger J. Lederer was published September 17 2024 by Hardie Grant Books and is available from all good booksellers, including