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The Lives of Bats
]'tAA ()ctober f985
460 nonsensical. Thus, the topic of lefthandedness has become overlaid with layers upon layers of myths. As one who has laboured many years to strip away the deposits and search for the basic structure, it was a chastening
experience to read a brief and bald statement of my own ideas incorporated as yet another accretion to the theoretical midden. The book challenges scientists to produce stories which stand up to critical scrutiny and
then tell them in ways which can t~c understood by the general reader
T h e Lives of B a t s
fascinating interactions between flowers and bats and the source of protein for flower-visiting bats constitutes a third important omission, and perpetuation of an outdated classification the fourth. Most biologists who study bats would agree that the vampires constitute a subfamily (Desmodontinae) of the family Phyllostomidae, while the moustache bats (Mormoopidae) are a family in their own right, The Lives of Bats will introduce the
lay reader to the diversity and biology of the Chiroptera, Its readable text and good quality illustrations are strong assets. The more serious student of bats, however, will find much of the information outdated, and, m some cases, inaccurate. The four examples presented above are symptomatic of a broader assortment of flaws.
by W. Schober, Croom Helm, 1984. £13.95 (200 pages) ISBN 0 7099 2389 9 This is a readable and well-illustrated general book, representing a modem re-incarnation of G. M. Allen's classic Bats which was published in 1939. The author and the translator have done an excellent job in preparing a well organized production with the stated goals of enlightening people about bats and trying to foster a positive attitude about them. Topics covered range from myths, flight, distribution and roosting habits to diet, echolocation, hibernation and conservation. The level of material is suitable for the lay-reader but not appropriate as a reference or text book. I was surprised that the parasites of bats received no attention and that the sections dealing with interactions between bats and man failed to review the problems of bats and public health. Both of these areas impinge on the public's impression of bats and not addressing them will leave unanswered questions in the minds of some readers. For the biologist interested in a current view of the biology of bats, the book is not successful. Four examples illustrate this condition. The first is the discussion of the calls of male hammer-headed bats. The book leaves the impression that our knowledge about this system is vague, but in 1977 J. W. Bradbury published (Z. Tierpsychol. ) the results of a thorough study which made it clear that the calls in question are displays of males at leks, a communal prenuptual display involving ritualized contests among competitors. The second involves echolocation. The echolocation calls of bats are referred to inappropriately, as 'supersonic' and although the accuracy of the system is stressed the caption of an accompanying photograph informs the reader that mist nets are invisible to bat echolocation. There is no mention of studies (e.g., J. Fiedler, 1979, Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol.) about the importance of other cues to hunting bats capable of echolocation. The
MARIAN :\NN t':VI E Department o! Applied Social Studie~, ('ovemr~ (Lanchester) Polytechnic. (~wertrrv CVI 5FB, UK
M. B. FENTON Professor of Biology, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada K1S 5B6
Bool~ Received Review copies of the following books have been received. Books which have been reviewed in full jn TINS are not included. The appearance of a book in this list does not preclude the possibilityof it being reviewed in the future.
Nancy C. Andreasen The Broken Brain. The Biological Revolution in Psychiatry Harper & Row, 1984, £12.95 (viii ÷ 278 pages) ISBN 0 06 015281 8 Magda B. Arnold Memory and the Brain Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1984. £47.90 (x + 532 pages). ISBN 0 89859 290 9
Jules Constant Bedside Cardiology Little, Brown and Company, 198,5. $39,95 (xiii + 458 pages) ISBN 0 316 15323 0 O. D. Creutzfeldt Cortex Cerebri SpringerVerlag, 1983. DM 128 (xiii + 484 pages~ ISBN 3 540 12193 5/0,3"87 12193 5
Struther Arnot, D. A. Rees and E. R. Morris (eds) Molecular Biophysics of the ExtraceUular Matrix Humana Press, 1984. £40.65 (xii + 189 pages) ISBN 0 89603 015 6
A. E Doyle and F. A. O. Mendelsohn (eds) Receptors, Membranes and Transport Mechanisms in Medicine Excerpta Mediea. 1984. $67.25/ D r 175.00 (viii + 277 pages) ISBN 0 44480631 8
Claude T. Bishop How To Edit Ab Scientific Journal ISA Press, 1984. £19.50 (xii + 138 pages) ISBN 0 89495 034 7
Robert C. Eaton led.) Neural Mechanisms of Startle Behavior Plenum Press. 1984. £49.50 (xvii + 377 pages] ISBN 0 30641556 9
Ruth Bleirer The Hypothalmus of the Guinea Pig, A Cytoarchitectonic Atlas The University of Wisconsin Press, 1983. £42.50 (xiii + 134 pages) ISBN 0 299 09040 X
Gerald M. Edelman. W. Einar Gall and W. Maxwell Cowan (eds) Dynamic Aspects of Neocortical Function John Wiley & Sons, 1984. £98.30 (ix + 718 pages) ISBN 0 471 80559 9
Nigel W. Bond led.) Animal Models in Psychopathology Academic Press, 1984. $29.00/ £22.00 (xii + 318 pages) ISBN 0 12 114180 2 Peter J. Brancazio Sport Science. Physical Laws and Optimura Performance Simon and Schuster, 1984. $9.95 (ix + 400 pages) ISBN 0 671 55438 7 William A. Calder Size, Function and Life History Harvard University, 1984. £28.60 (xii + 431 pages) ISBN 0 674 81070 8
John S. Elam and Paul Cancalon (eds) Axonal Transport in Neuronal Growth and Regeneration Plenum Press, 1984. £45.00 fxvi + 284 pages) ISBN 0 306 41699 9 Curt Von Euler. Ove Franzen, Ulf Lindblom and David Ottoson (eds) Smrmtosensory Mechanisms Plenum Press. 1984. £55.00 (xiii + 396 pages) ISBN 0 306 41~842 8
L. A. Chahl, J. Szolt:sanyi and F. Lembeek (eds) Antidromic Vasodilation and Neurogenic Inflammation Akademial Kiado, 1984. $46.00 (xi + 352 pages) ISBN 963 05 3996 9
F. Feinoso-Suarez and C. Ajome-Marsan (eds) Cortical Integration: Basic, Archicortical. and Cortical Association Levels of Neural Integration Raven Press. 1984. $106.50 (xii + 440 pages) ISBN 0 88167 034 0
R. Porter and J. Whelan (eds) Ciba Foundation Symposium 108, Basement Membranes and Cell Movement Pitman, 1984. £.26.50 (ix + 285 pages) ISBN 0 272 79778 2
Leslie J. Findley and Rudy Capitdeo Movement Disorders: Tremor Macmillan, 1984. £12.00 (xv - 493 pages) ISBN 0 333 35040 5
The Company of Biologists Mechanisms of integration in the nervous system The Company of Biologists, 1984. £25.00FUS,$60.00 (i + 357 pages) ISBN 0 9508709 3 5
Roy O. Freedle ted.) New Directions in Discourse Processing (VoL H in the Series Advances in Discourse Process) Ablex Publishing, 1979. (xv + 336 pages) ISBN 0 89391 003 t
460 nonsensical. Thus, the topic of lefthandedness has become overlaid with layers upon layers of myths. As one who has laboured many years to strip away the deposits and search for the basic structure, it was a chastening
experience to read a brief and bald statement of my own ideas incorporated as yet another accretion to the theoretical midden. The book challenges scientists to produce stories which stand up to critical scrutiny and
then tell them in ways which can t~c understood by the general reader
T h e Lives of B a t s
fascinating interactions between flowers and bats and the source of protein for flower-visiting bats constitutes a third important omission, and perpetuation of an outdated classification the fourth. Most biologists who study bats would agree that the vampires constitute a subfamily (Desmodontinae) of the family Phyllostomidae, while the moustache bats (Mormoopidae) are a family in their own right, The Lives of Bats will introduce the
lay reader to the diversity and biology of the Chiroptera, Its readable text and good quality illustrations are strong assets. The more serious student of bats, however, will find much of the information outdated, and, m some cases, inaccurate. The four examples presented above are symptomatic of a broader assortment of flaws.
by W. Schober, Croom Helm, 1984. £13.95 (200 pages) ISBN 0 7099 2389 9 This is a readable and well-illustrated general book, representing a modem re-incarnation of G. M. Allen's classic Bats which was published in 1939. The author and the translator have done an excellent job in preparing a well organized production with the stated goals of enlightening people about bats and trying to foster a positive attitude about them. Topics covered range from myths, flight, distribution and roosting habits to diet, echolocation, hibernation and conservation. The level of material is suitable for the lay-reader but not appropriate as a reference or text book. I was surprised that the parasites of bats received no attention and that the sections dealing with interactions between bats and man failed to review the problems of bats and public health. Both of these areas impinge on the public's impression of bats and not addressing them will leave unanswered questions in the minds of some readers. For the biologist interested in a current view of the biology of bats, the book is not successful. Four examples illustrate this condition. The first is the discussion of the calls of male hammer-headed bats. The book leaves the impression that our knowledge about this system is vague, but in 1977 J. W. Bradbury published (Z. Tierpsychol. ) the results of a thorough study which made it clear that the calls in question are displays of males at leks, a communal prenuptual display involving ritualized contests among competitors. The second involves echolocation. The echolocation calls of bats are referred to inappropriately, as 'supersonic' and although the accuracy of the system is stressed the caption of an accompanying photograph informs the reader that mist nets are invisible to bat echolocation. There is no mention of studies (e.g., J. Fiedler, 1979, Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol.) about the importance of other cues to hunting bats capable of echolocation. The
MARIAN :\NN t':VI E Department o! Applied Social Studie~, ('ovemr~ (Lanchester) Polytechnic. (~wertrrv CVI 5FB, UK
M. B. FENTON Professor of Biology, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada K1S 5B6
Bool~ Received Review copies of the following books have been received. Books which have been reviewed in full jn TINS are not included. The appearance of a book in this list does not preclude the possibilityof it being reviewed in the future.
Nancy C. Andreasen The Broken Brain. The Biological Revolution in Psychiatry Harper & Row, 1984, £12.95 (viii ÷ 278 pages) ISBN 0 06 015281 8 Magda B. Arnold Memory and the Brain Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1984. £47.90 (x + 532 pages). ISBN 0 89859 290 9
Jules Constant Bedside Cardiology Little, Brown and Company, 198,5. $39,95 (xiii + 458 pages) ISBN 0 316 15323 0 O. D. Creutzfeldt Cortex Cerebri SpringerVerlag, 1983. DM 128 (xiii + 484 pages~ ISBN 3 540 12193 5/0,3"87 12193 5
Struther Arnot, D. A. Rees and E. R. Morris (eds) Molecular Biophysics of the ExtraceUular Matrix Humana Press, 1984. £40.65 (xii + 189 pages) ISBN 0 89603 015 6
A. E Doyle and F. A. O. Mendelsohn (eds) Receptors, Membranes and Transport Mechanisms in Medicine Excerpta Mediea. 1984. $67.25/ D r 175.00 (viii + 277 pages) ISBN 0 44480631 8
Claude T. Bishop How To Edit Ab Scientific Journal ISA Press, 1984. £19.50 (xii + 138 pages) ISBN 0 89495 034 7
Robert C. Eaton led.) Neural Mechanisms of Startle Behavior Plenum Press. 1984. £49.50 (xvii + 377 pages] ISBN 0 30641556 9
Ruth Bleirer The Hypothalmus of the Guinea Pig, A Cytoarchitectonic Atlas The University of Wisconsin Press, 1983. £42.50 (xiii + 134 pages) ISBN 0 299 09040 X
Gerald M. Edelman. W. Einar Gall and W. Maxwell Cowan (eds) Dynamic Aspects of Neocortical Function John Wiley & Sons, 1984. £98.30 (ix + 718 pages) ISBN 0 471 80559 9
Nigel W. Bond led.) Animal Models in Psychopathology Academic Press, 1984. $29.00/ £22.00 (xii + 318 pages) ISBN 0 12 114180 2 Peter J. Brancazio Sport Science. Physical Laws and Optimura Performance Simon and Schuster, 1984. $9.95 (ix + 400 pages) ISBN 0 671 55438 7 William A. Calder Size, Function and Life History Harvard University, 1984. £28.60 (xii + 431 pages) ISBN 0 674 81070 8
John S. Elam and Paul Cancalon (eds) Axonal Transport in Neuronal Growth and Regeneration Plenum Press, 1984. £45.00 fxvi + 284 pages) ISBN 0 306 41699 9 Curt Von Euler. Ove Franzen, Ulf Lindblom and David Ottoson (eds) Smrmtosensory Mechanisms Plenum Press. 1984. £55.00 (xiii + 396 pages) ISBN 0 306 41~842 8
L. A. Chahl, J. Szolt:sanyi and F. Lembeek (eds) Antidromic Vasodilation and Neurogenic Inflammation Akademial Kiado, 1984. $46.00 (xi + 352 pages) ISBN 963 05 3996 9
F. Feinoso-Suarez and C. Ajome-Marsan (eds) Cortical Integration: Basic, Archicortical. and Cortical Association Levels of Neural Integration Raven Press. 1984. $106.50 (xii + 440 pages) ISBN 0 88167 034 0
R. Porter and J. Whelan (eds) Ciba Foundation Symposium 108, Basement Membranes and Cell Movement Pitman, 1984. £.26.50 (ix + 285 pages) ISBN 0 272 79778 2
Leslie J. Findley and Rudy Capitdeo Movement Disorders: Tremor Macmillan, 1984. £12.00 (xv - 493 pages) ISBN 0 333 35040 5
The Company of Biologists Mechanisms of integration in the nervous system The Company of Biologists, 1984. £25.00FUS,$60.00 (i + 357 pages) ISBN 0 9508709 3 5
Roy O. Freedle ted.) New Directions in Discourse Processing (VoL H in the Series Advances in Discourse Process) Ablex Publishing, 1979. (xv + 336 pages) ISBN 0 89391 003 t