Bird Display by Edward A. ArmstrongReview by: G. W.The Irish Naturalists' Journal, Vol. 8, No. 3 (Mar., 1943), pp. 87-88Published by: Irish Naturalists' Journal Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25533173 .

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March, 1943.] The Irish Naturalists' Journal. 87

recently been germinated at the Natural History Museum ; but in this case the age is only an estimate and the seeds have not been artificially stored except for the last few years of their life."

OUR LIBRARY TABLE.

Bird Display, by Edward A. Armstrong, B.A. XVI + 381 pp., 22

plates, 21/- net. Cambridge University Press. The author of this work is favourably known to many of us by

his Birds of the Grey Wind, a book which gives an interesting account of the birds and flowers, scenery and folk-lore of Northern Ireland. If one compares the two works, it might be ^aid that the earlier volume has the more popular appeal, as it is almost of the nature of friendly chats about sundry aspects of life, especially bird-life, as seen in Ireland. The book now under review is a more specialUed study of various branches of one great and interesting subject, Bird

Display. It is put into our hands as an "

Introduction to the Study of Bird Psychology." It is definitely an ornithologists1 book ; but it

is so interestingly written that many who make no claim to be

specialists will enjoy it. Like its predecessor, it is illustrated by many beautiful photographs.

A record of a large amount of personal observation by Mr. Arm

strong is included in the volume ; but there is also a compilation of

the views of many naturalists. Stress is laid in the Preface on the

importance in such studies of reliance only on well-documented

evidence, and on the exclusion of **

careless observation and wanton

generalisation." There is a very copious bibliography, which should

add greatly to the usefulness of the book. It is quite impossible in a short notice to do justice to the many

subjects that are dealt with ; but it may be said that the general tendency of the work is to stress the importance of a psychological element" in behaviour. Facts, of great interest in themselves, are

narrated, and in many cases an attempt is made to analyse the factors that have led to their development. Recognising the primary

biological significance of display as conducing to survival, the author shows how in many cases

" behaviour patterns

" may outlive their

period of usefulness. For example {p. 14): "

Dance and song ....

though subserving important biological functions among birds, are often carried to such a pitch that they seem to be performed, as

amongst human beings, for their own sake, and in some sense for the enjoyment derived from them. Although the Gannet's antics may

be attributed to the stimulation of the endocrine system, the psycho logical aspect is no less important than the physiological."

Sundry doings of the birds are traced back to behaviour that was at one time of a very different character, for example*, the

" billing,"

that is so common as a gesture of adult pairs, is regarded as a survival of the mouth to mouth feeding of nestlings.

" Both billing and court

ship feeding are a recrudescence of an infantile mode of behaviour." In his chapter on "The Significance of Related Ceremonies/' Mr.

Armstrong gives numerous striking illustrations of the fact that

similarity of behaviour-pattern is often of interest in its hearing on

classification of birds. At the same time he recognises that there is

often a tendency of certain types of activity tc recur in groups of

organisms that are widely separated from each other; and these

parallelisms he explains as due to the operation of fundamental

psychological forces. " A brief indication of the scope of the work will serve to show

, how comprehensive it is. It begins with a study of the Ceremonial of the Gannet, as a sort of general introduction. The posture of the

sitting bird is cgnsidered ; then the manner of leaving the nest, which constitutes a

" flying-up" ceremonial ; next the prolonged

ceremonial of post-nuptial "

connubial displays," which are taken to be survivals of an earlier psychological phase ; and finally there is a study of the useless

" vestigial nesting habits." Vestigial habits are

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8? The Irish Naturalists' Journal. [Vol. VIII.

defined as "

behaviour-patterns, which survive beyond their period of usefulness," and it is added,

*4 there is hardly a behaviour-pattern

which may not outlive its usefulness."

Later chapters deal with many individual subjects such as: ''Evolution of Nest Building,''^'L Courtship Feeding"; "Ceremonial

Gaping" ; "

The Significance of Related Ceremonies" ; "

Trance

States"; "

Injury Feigning"; "Greeting and other Ceremonies"; " Arena Displays

" ;

" Territory, Song, and Song-flight

" ; and others.

There is a concluding chapter on "

The Relationship between the

Physiological and the Psychological Aspects of Display." One may not always see eye to eye with the author, but he has

certainly brought together a well-authenticated and most interesting mass of* facts, and his study of them must command our admiration. The book will interest all bird-lovers.

G. W.

, The Irish Stone Age, by Hal lam L. Movius, Jr., Ph.D. .XXIV -f 339

pp., plates, maps and text illustrations, 30/- net. Cambridge University Press.

Dr. H. L. Movius, under the auspices of the University of Harvard, carried out archaeological field-work in Ireland between 1932 and 1936. The detailed results of the excavations, which were admirable in

every way, have for the most part already appeared in journals of Irish learned societies. In the book under review Mr. Movius places the results in abridged form against their background of European glaciology, climatology, paleobotany and archaeology. The book is divided into two equal parts. Part II deals with the Stone Age Cultures of north-east Ireland and with their British and European affinities ; part I, together with its six appendixes, puts the Irish Stone Age in its European setting as established by the most recent research.

The production is excellent. The text, which is clearly written and almost free from misprints, is well illustrated with photographs of the sites and excavations, with numerous line drawings of the various

types of flint implement, and with well-executed maps and helpful tables. It is supplemented by a comprehensive list (occupying about 20 pages) of works on European late-glacial and post-glacial history and on Mesolithic and Neolithic archaeology and by an especially valuable and complete classified bibliography on. cave research and Stone Age archaeology in Ireland. An ample index concludes a volume on which the author and his publishers (Cambridge University Press) are to be congratulated ; only the quality of the paper betrays the

impact of war conditions.

The author most generously acknowledges the sources of his material where this is not his own ; his generosity may perhaps explain his attitude which throughout is insufficiently critical.

While ready to admit with other workers in Ireland that Palaeolithic man may have inhabited the country, Dr. Movius very summarily rejects 'the pretentions of the Irish

" palaeoliths

" together

with the claim that the Kilgreany remains are of great antiauity. He describes very fully the Irish Mesolithic coastal sites, including Cushendun, the type site for the Early Larnian, and Larne, the classic site for the fully developed Irish Mesolithic. He.shows how the close cultural relationships between north-east Ireland and south-west Scotland were severed by the Littorina submergence which isolated the two regions, producing the Late Larnian in the one and the

Obanian, with its Azilian influences, in the other. The Campignian and the cultures of the Bann (Early Subboreai in age) and the coastal dunes also receive full treatment.

Europe's Quaternary history is full jf pitfalls ; unproven astronomical theories of the Ice Age which seem to be increasingly influencing field-investigations' and interpretations are but adding to their number. The author has not been able to ?void some of them. Readers unfamiliar with the problems s,hould be warned against placing too much reliance upon the downright correlations with N.

dermany and Switzerland or even upon the precise figures of varve

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