The World's Whales: The Complete Illustrated Guide

I love this book. It's a large coffee table book, yet at the same time it's a handy reference (almost a field guide) to the whales of the world. It has over 200 pages of information and hundreds of color photographs of whales from all over the planet. The whales are broken down into types: Baleen versus Toothed, and then each type is covered by species. Included are: Baleen whales; Rorqual whales; the Gray whale; Right Whales; Sperm whales; Beaked and Bottlenose whales; Oceanic Dolphins; Beluga and Narwhal; Freshwater Dolphins; and Porpoises.The introduction has lots of important information about whales, and a number of diagrams showing some of the differences between whales. I liked best the chart that shows the relative size of the various whales in relation to one another. This is followed by pages of information on each individual type of whale, showing a photo (if available), a diagram, and containing information about the whale. All in all this is a great book if you're interested in these wonderful creatures, and it helps to differentiate between the various types. It's worth looking for even though it's out of print.