Mori ater alate OUNM tbe sli hol N 37 
BOOK REVIEWS 
BEASTLY INVENTIONS 
by Jean Craighead George 
David McKay Co., 1970 
208 pp, $6.95 
The intriguing title of this little 
book comes clear when one reads 
the sub-title, “A Surprising Inves- 
tigation Into How Smart Animals 
Really Are.” It is a compendium 
of more than a hundred instances 
of unusual, bizarre, almost-incredi- 
ble actions of birds, mammals, 
reptiles and insects that make the 
reader wonder “Can animals really 
think?” 
The author carefully skirts the 
issue, long debated by scientists, 
whether or not lower animals have 
intelligence or power to reason. 
However I am strongly tempted to 
think that she believes they have 
both. 
Mrs. George maintains that she 
is not a naturalist but a nature 
writer. One may ask, “What then 
is a naturalist if anyone with the 
immense knowledge of natural 
history that the author demon- 
strates is hers does not qualify as 
one?” Her wealth of natural his- 
tory lore is astonishing, whether 
obtained in college courses, through 
extensive reading, by observation 
in field and laboratory, or by 
“osmosis” from members of an out- 
standing family of naturalists. 
(Jean is the daughter of Dr. F. C. 
Craighead, Sr., a distinguished 
former naturalist with the U. S. 
Department of Agriculture, and the 
sister of the well-known twins, 
Frank, Jr. and John Craighead.) 
Her “inventors of beastly inven- 
tions” include the Pacific sea otter 
who picks up stones from the bot- 
tom of the sea and places them on 
its chest, making a hard table on 
which to crack open shellfish. 
Readers of the National Geo- 
graphic Magazine are familiar with 
two other animal inventions that 
Mrs. George describes, both of 
them first reported by the brilliant 
naturalist-photographer team, Bar- 
oness Jane van Ladwick-Goodall 
and her husband, Baron Hugo van 
Lawick. These are the shaping and 
use as tools by wild chimpanzes of 
sharp twigs with which to “fish” 
for termites in their burrows, and 
the throwing of rocks as missles 
by Egyptian vultures to break 
shells of ostrich eggs too hard to 
be pierced by their beaks. 
We are introduced to a myriad 
more instances of “smart” animal 
improvisations for these purposes, 
among others: 
1. Obtaining food — by trickery, 
ruse or plain deceit. 
2. Escaping predators — by cam- 
ouflage, mimicry and the use of 
odors. 
3. Home building in many out- 
landish but ingenious ways. 
4. Enticing prospective mates — 
notably bower birds of many 
species creating “interior decora- 
tions” and others using displays of 
colored feather manipulation, sing- 
ing, dancing, even comic antics of 
flight and posture, as well as pre- 
senting extraordinary gifts to a 
member of the other sex. 
