Best known for the beauty and diversity of its plant collections, Cornell Plantations reveals an abundance of other inhabitants and migrating visitors with its newest publication, An Annotated Checklist for Birds of Cornell Plantations.

The 32-page guide is co-authored by Charles R. Smith, senior research associate in Cornell's Department of Natural Resources, and Adam M. Byrne, a former undergraduate in that department, and includes illustrations by Louis Agassiz Fuertes, courtesy of the Kroch Rare and Manuscript Collections at Cornell.

For each of 128 birds that might be sighted in the Plantations botanical garden, arboretum or surrounding natural areas, there is a short description of its behavior and the type of setting in which it is normally found. In addition, the checklist notes how common or rare a given bird species is here, and a calendar indicates the time of year the bird is most likely to be spotted.

The guide is available in the Cornell Plantations Garden Gift Shop and the Cornell Campus Store for $3.95.

Cornell Plantations' grounds are open to the public, free of charge, from dawn to dark each day. For more information, contact Cornell Plantations, One Plantations Road, Ithaca, N.Y. 14850, phone (607) 255-3020. Or visit Cornell Plantations' web site http://www.plantations.cornell.edu to find out what's blooming at Plantations, follow the online guide to the Plantations Path, and check schedules of Plantations classes, lectures, and special events.