BOOK NOTICES 29 
BOOK NOTICES. 
TYPES AND BREEDS OF FARM ANIMALS, By Professor Charles S. 
Plumb. (Revised Edition.) New York and London: Ginn 
& Co., 1920. Pp. vili+820. Price 16s. 6d. net. 
This deservedly popular work, the first edition of which appeared in 
1906, deals with the recognised breeds of horses, asses and mules, of 
cattle, sheep, goats and pigs, and it aims at being a handy book of 
reference for farmers, stock-breeders, and students in agricultural 
colleges. It succeeds conspicuously in its aim, for its descriptions of 
the essential features of domesticated breeds, of their economic qualities 
and of some of their main pedigree herds, are clear and to the point 
and are well illustrated by reproductions from photographs, while the 
succinctness of the descriptions has enabled the author to traverse a 
notably wide field. 
Yet, apart from its utility to the professional stockman, the book has 
other values. To the general naturalist it is full of interest and 
significance. Professor Plumb briefly discusses the wild ancestors of 
the domesticated horse, tracing the steps of its evolution from the Eocene 
Eohippus, about the size of a fox-terrier; and although he has not 
ventured similarly to trace the ancestry of the other domesticated 
creatures with which he deals, he has nevertheless supplied many hints, 
for example in his notes .on the temperament and disposition of the 
breeds, as well as in his accounts of ‘structural characteristics, which 
show how potent-has been the hand of the breeder in developing, altering, 
or obliterating the natural endowments of the ancestral forms. Jodk. 
TERRITORY IN Birp Lire. By H. Eliot Howard. London: John 
Murray, 1920. Price ars, net. 
Those of our readers who are familiar with Mr Eliot Howard’s 
British Warblers (1907-1914) will not be surprised to know that his 
latest book is a thorough piece of work based on personal observation 
and experience. The author is essentially a field-naturalist to whom 
the early hours of dawn are an attraction rather than a deterrent: 
utinam st stc omnes / 
Mr Eliot Howard claims that the struggle for territory in bird-life 
is the main object in a bird’s existence. He suggests that the recollection 
of mate, or of place, may provide the original impulse for migration ; he 
avers that the battles between males are not for females but-for territory ; 
he claims that the purpose of song is to advertise the songsters’ territorial 
possession ; he shows that both male and female are active in defence 
of their territory when once acquired ; he points out that possession of 
territory ensures the means of subsistence for the birds living in that 
area; and he concludes that “the impulse to seek the appropriate 
breeding ground and to dwell there would seem to be the strongest of 
all impulses save one—the sexual.” 
