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acoustic communication and related mechanistic topics and a second dealing with emerging develop- ments regarding the behavioural ecology of these superb subjects. Crickets may be an example of how those of us who study animal behaviour will be able to build a story beginning with the cell and traversing eventually to issues of ecology and evolution. The book should be invaluable to all who work on insects, particularly their physiology and behaviour, it can serve as a model for etholo- gists working on a variety of organisms, and it would be a fine subject for an upper level seminar course.

LEE C. DRICKAMER Department of Zoology, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL 62901, U.S.A.

Evolutionary Paleobiology of Behavior and Co- evolution. By A. J. BOUCOT. Amsterdam: Elsevier (1990). Pp. xxiii + 725. Price $148.75.

Just imagine a pair of mammoths dying with inter- locked tusks, an ichthyosaur giving breech birth with another young to come, or an oligocene ant feeding another by trophallaxis. With the aid of Boucot's marvellous compilation of animals fossilized while engaged in these and many other behaviours, very little need be left to your imagina- tion. Excellent photographs and line drawings make the fossils live. This is a book for natural historians and, in particular, ethologists who want to add a new temporal dimension to their experi- ences. At the same time, it is a comprehensive reference volume.

In a valiant bid to add scientific credentials to an otherwise enthralling collection of examples. Boucot employs nine levels of evidence from 'incontrovertible' to 'highly speculative' as he classifies the available material as representing 35 different categories of behaviour. Incontrovertible evidence includes copulating ants preserved in amber, while speculation ranges to dinosaur track- ways from the Cretaceous of Queensland suppo- sedly representing a group of herbivores pursued by their predators. The categories range from the mundane pollination ecology to the more bizarre forms of sexual behaviour, and the text is full of tables that list the places where representative fossils were collected, the dates of preservation, the type of evidence provided by each fossil, and references for further details.

Most compilations include only that material selected by the author or editor. Boucot's volume is different: it attempts complete coverage in 725 action-packed pages, documenting photographi-

cally as many examples as possible, and referencing the rest (there are way over 2000 references given at the end of the book). This scholarship allows the more serious research worker to evaluate all the available phylogenetic evidence for any particular behaviour of interest. It is not surprising that limuloids left tracks like those of Limulus or that Jurassic squid ate fish, but it may be important for some future study of parental care to review the phylogenetic evidence in particular taxa. And it may be of more than passing interest that Holodenius fed on ctenacanth sharks. In any event, it will be difficult for the reader to forget the picture of this behaviour being frozen in time by one shark's dorsal spine puncturing the predator's palatal roof and entering its braincase, the presumable cause of death prior to immaculate fossilization.

The book is written for the most part by Boucot himself, though there are many contributed sec- tions by authorities on particular subjects. This inevitably leads to a patchy coverage, but such also is the nature of fossil material. The scientific community should be grateful to Boucot for com- pleting this labour of love to produce the classic text of its genre, a book for curling up with to watch fossils come alive, and an invaluable reference work.

Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, U.K.

PAUL HARVEY

The Selfish Gene. 2nd edn. By R. DAWKINS. Oxford: Oxford University Press (1989). Pp. xi+352. Price s paperback.

Several years ago, when The Blind Watchmaker (Dawkins 1976) had just been published, I arranged to meet a colleague in the foyer of Dillons bookshop in London. Our intention was to find somewhere for dinner but first, at my colleague's suggestion, we decided to browse in Dillons' biology department. (I think he secretly wanted to know how many copies of his own book Dillons was stocking.) Alas, as we rounded the corner leading to the biology bookshelves my colleague reared back in horror and amazement. 'Dawkins!' he gasped. 'There's nothing but Dawkins! Wall to wall Dawkins!' And it was true.

If there is one book that needs no introduction to readers of Animal Behaviour it is The Selfish Gene. Many of us love the book; a few object to its manner, deplore its contents or are jealous of its success; what matters is that most of us recommend it enthusiastically to our students and have copies