This addition to the growing series of identification guides to bird families treats only the 18 species of pipits and 9 of wagtails recognized by the authors as occurring in the Holarctic biogeographic region (ostensibly Eurasia and North America). The title is thus misleading, in that the book does not treat about half of the world's species of the Motacillidae. This approach, however, has advantages over the more common one of including all of the world's species in a given family, despite an author's lack of familiarity with many species. And the authors of Pipits and Wagtails have spent many years studying this group of birds, rather than deciding one day that they would simply like to write a book. As a consequence, Pipits and Wagtails stands virtually alone in this recent series: it is authoritative, well written, and full of literature citations. It should be a model for any future works in this genre.