Ecological Genetics by E. B. FordReview by: O. W. RichardsJournal of Animal Ecology, Vol. 33, No. 3 (Oct., 1964), p. 528Published by: British Ecological SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2576 .

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528 Reviews

East African Wildlife Journal. Vol. 1, August 1963. Pp. 130; photographs and text-figures. Published by East African Wildlife Society, P.O. Box 20110, Nairobi, Kenya. Subscription 17s. 6d. ($2.50) per issue.

Reviewers are bound to look critically at any addition to the world's burden of scientific litera- ture but, in this instance, there can be no reaction but that of a frank welcome. The increasing concern about Africa's flora and fauna has produced a swift growth of work compounded of ecology, animal husbandry and conservation and the Introduction by Elspeth Huxley traces this growth and stresses its urgency. At last a transition has been reached from pontification about Africa's wildlife problems to hard work in gathering facts by people on the spot.

The change in emphasis is illustrated by the papers contained in this first volume of the new journal. Most of them concern the relations of large mammal populations to their habitat. H. F. Lamprey gives a thoughtful evaluation of ecological niches in the Tarangire Game Reserve in Tanganyika and traces the key industries in this part of the community. J. Glover sets out, with carefully collected data, the problem arising from overpopulation by elephants of the Tsavo National Park and P. Napier Bax and D. L. W. Sheldrick add important information about the elephants' diet there. The late A. T. A. Ritchie's paper on the black rhinoceros brings together records by himself and others about the biology of the species most directly affected by the increase of elephants. As a footnote to the spreading conception of cropping large mammal populations as an efficient form of land use, H. P. Ledger gives an interesting analysis of carcase proportions, showing that game species have more muscle and less fat relatively than domestic animals.

In addition there are papers on birds of prey in East Africa (L. H. Brown), on the spotted- necked otter in Tanganyika (J. Procter) and on the Arabian oryx (D. R. M. Stewart). Short notes and reports of conferences complete the volume.

The size of the journal is Crown Quarto and it is bound in cloth with stiff covers. It is printed on filled (shiny) paper in double columns and the standard of half-tone and text-figure reproduc- tion is good. Though primarily concerned with East African wild life, it invites contributions from any part of the world. This absence of parochialism is a good augury for the future and it is to be hoped that, in time, general ecologists will find the journal as indispensable as students of vertebrate populations and of wildlife management will immediately.

H. N. SOUTHERN

E. B. Ford (1964). Ecological Genetics. Pp. xv+335; 16 plates, 7 maps, 11 text-figures. London: Methuen. Price 42s.

The main theme of this book is genetic polymorphism and the factors which tend to keep the various morphs in approximately steady proportions in nature. The examples which are des- cribed in some detail include Lepidoptera (Maniola jurtina, Panaxia dominula, mimetic species, especially Papilio dardanus, and melanic forms), chromosome inversions in Drosophila, colour morphs in Cepaea, and homostyle-heterostyle primroses. This provides a valuable summary in Professor Ford's lucid style of work which has mostly been published elsewhere, much of it by Professor Ford and his colleagues, together with an extended commentary. Presumably, Good- hart's work (1962) on Cepaea was not published soon enough to be included; it might have made it necessary to take a different view on genetic drift in this genus, particularly as the later papers by Cain suggest that the significance of predation may be more localized than was at first thought. An ecologist will feel, I think, that far too little is as yet known about the ecology and in particular of the population dynamics of any of the various species whose importance to genetic or evolu- tionary theory is so great. We must hope that in the near future a closer link between the dis- ciplines may be established.

0. W. RICHARDS

J. P. Glasgow (1963). The Distribution and Abundance of Tsetse. Pp. xi+241; 1 coloured plate, 26 text-figures. Oxford: Pergamon Press. Price 60s.

After spending more than 20 years in the study of tsetse flies in East Africa, Dr Glasgow has used what is known of their population ecology to test the theories that were proposed in the book

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