Mammal Rev. 1986, Volume 16, No. 2,80. Printed in Great Brirain

Book Review

MMMALS IN THE BRITISH ISLES. By L. Harrison Matthews. Collins, London, 1982. 207 p. E10.95.

The publication in 1952 of the New Naturalist volume British Mammals was one of the most important catalysts in the process leading to the formation of the Mammal Society in 1954. The appearance, therefore, of another volume in the same series by the same author is a noteworthy event.

This is a completely new book, and not a rewrite of its predecessor. Whereas that dealt with the British mammals largely in systematic fashion, with a chapter to each main group, this one deals instead with a series of topics. A brief first chapter introduces the mammal fauna in systematic order, and the next three chapters cover the origins and balance of the fauna in ‘Ice Ages’, ‘The Evolution of the Environment’, and ‘Distribution of Habitats’. Dr Matthews then turns to a series of biological topics, ‘Ranges, Territories and Populations’, ‘Social Behaviour’, ‘Behaviour and the Environment’, ‘Communication’, and ‘Internal and External Rhythms’. The book ends with a chapter largely devoted to a discussion of pest problems in ‘Man and the other mammals’. As one expects from so experienced and knowledgeable an author, this is an extremely readable and scholarly book. The references range from Leviticus 26 to 1980 papers in Mammal Review and Journal of Zoology, and include a very liberal admixture of Victorian literature with very recent research. On the other hand, I feel that this book is not going to be so influential as its predecessor, and the publishers have perhaps inflicted on the author an impossible task. Naturalists now have available an enormous range of books, from field guides and monographs on particular species to such essential references as the Handbook of British Mammals, and also the opportunity to see many species on television, which were not available when he wrote his previous New Naturalist. The public for this book is more experienced, and it might have been better to have recognized this by greater specialization in this series; we already have a New Naturalist on British Seals, and volumes on British Deer, Mice and Voles, and The British Carnivores might have been worthy successors.

It is not entirely fair of a reviewer to criticize a book for not being some other book. This is a very enjoyable book-it is not a dry reference book, but one to browse. I particularly commend the discussion of the origin of the mammal fauna in the first three chapters as a marvellous essay. Conversely, I was very disappointed by the discussion of man’s relationships with other mam- mals in the last chapter, which concentrated almost entirely on their pest status, and not, I felt, in a very sympathetic manner. I t must be embarrassing for the author to have endorsed Lord Zuckerman’s view, that destroying badgers by gassing them is the appropriate policy, when it has now been ruled out as cruel. I thought, too, that I detected a lapse in the author’s scholarship over the grey seals of the Farne Islands, which have increased ‘although human disturbance of the habitat seems to have changed little’. Surely the Outer Farne Islands were abandoned by their human population in about 1820?

So is this a book to buy? Yes, of course, it is-any British naturalist who does not buy it is missing an interesting read and an informative introduction to the British mammals. The fact that New Naturalist 21 is already on the bookshelf is not relevant, though do not discard that either: this new volume complements the other one.

D. W. Yalden