PYCRAFT ON THE INFANCY AND COURTSHIP 



OF ANIMALS* 



WALTER S. HUNTER 



The University of Texas 



In the two volumes here under consideration, Pycraft has 

 presented a large compilation of data bearing upon the two 

 subjects involved. The emphasis throughout is upon the evi- 

 dences of evolution. The point of view is that of the naturalist 

 and zoologist rather than that of the experimental behaviorist. 



The chapter headings lean to the fanciful. The topics cov- 

 ered in the treatise on infancy may be given, however, as fol- 

 lows: Mammals, their coloration, their early activities and the 

 mile-stones of evolution which they present. This is followed 

 by three similar chapters on birds, and these by three more 

 considering the same topics in reptiles. A chapter to each of 

 the following topics completes the book: Tadpoles, the infancy 

 of fishes, the infancy of crabs and caterpillars, and puzzles and 

 paradoxes. The dominant note of this volume is that infancy 

 contains the key to the solution of many important problems of 

 evolution. This is especially emphasized with relation to color- 

 ation in the successive change from stripes to spots and then to 

 uniform color. The skeleton, as usual, is made to bear its share 

 of the proof of evolution. 



From the standpoint of the readers of this journal, the fol- 

 lowing points alone need to be made: (1) There is an ever 

 present tendency toward the uncritical acceptance of field 

 observations. On page 25, e.g., we read: ' But the finishing 

 touches of this education [play] do certainly seem to be imparted 

 by direct instruction from the parents. Cats certainly train 

 their young in the art of mouse-killing, etc." This, of course, 

 is not borne out by the careful work of Yerkes and Bloomfield. 



1 Pycraft, W. P. The Infancy of Animals. Henry Holt & Co., New York, 

 1913, P. 272. 



The Courtship of Animals. Henry Holt & Co., New York, 1914, 



P. 318. 



439 



