Zoogeography: The Geographical Distribution of Animals

Abstract

Teachers of college courses in zoogeography, of whom there is an ever-increasing number, have long struggled with textbooks which were inadequate, obsolete, or biased toward one particular aspect of this inclusive field. They will welcome the appearance of this volume which honestly attempts to stress the over-all principles governing animal distribution, with passing consideration of special facets and a general appraisal of what, in the light of present evidence, seems to have occurred. This is a geographical, not an ecological or geological or historical, zoogeography. It is attractive in format, carefully organized and well indexed, practically free of typographical errors, and altogether a masterly job. The only bad feature is the inordinately high price, for this was not an expensive book to produce, as books go today. The author, who is Curator of Insects at Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology, specializes in the taxonomy of beetles. Field studies have taken him several times to the West Indies, as well as to Colombia, Australia, New Guinea, the Philippines and Japan. Among the vertebrates, he knows birds the best, having watched and “collected them in a small way” since childhood. This detachment (in a curatorial sense) from vertebrates generally, together with a long interest in distributional problems and an association with such men as Thomas Barbour, M. L. Fernald and W. M. Wheeler, has been a happy combination making for a broad perspective and objective viewpoint. He has delved deeply into the literature and consulted widely with authorities on all groups concerned. He writes in a chatty yet authoritative style, cites appropriate statistics and examples, employs well-chosen diagrams and maps (the double orthographic rather than the familiar Mercator projection is used) and provides plentiful entries to published source material.