Desmond Morris’s Scientific Papers

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32394, 5 September 1970, Page 4

Desmond Morris’s Scientific Papers

Patterns Of Reproductive Behaviour. By Desmond Morris. Jonathan Cape. 528 pp. Index. (Reviewed by H.B.W.)' Dr Desmond Morris's most popular books are the world best-sellers “The Naked Ape” and its sequel “The Human Zoo,” and many of the ideas expressed there may well have arisen from his scientific researches in animal behaviour. In 1951, Dr Morris began studying at Oxford University under the direction of the famous Dutch scientist, Professor Niko Tinbergen, and during the next five years he made observations on 84 different species of vertebrates and gained richly in experience and knowledge. This volume brings together 14 of Dr Morris’s scientific papers, but these are so clearly written and illustrated that non-scientific readers will be able to understand them. They are interesting and educational. Nine of the papers deal with reproductive patterns in fish and birds and the other five, though dealing with wider aspects of animal behaviour, are included beckuse they have important bearings on reproductive patterns. They are only a selection: to date Dr Morris has published over 40 scientific papers and 10 books on a wide range of subjects. As a student. Dr Morris became interested in unravelling the complex visual signals that are vital communication links in the lives of at least fish, birds and mammals. His ability to describe behavioural patterns concisely yet comprehensively, to

analyse them and probe at their causes, survival value and evolutionary significance, soon became appreciated. His 1952 paper on homosexuality in a British freshwater fish, the ten-spined stickleback, introduced the term “pseudofemale behaviour” and was a significant contribution. This was followed by a study of the reproductive behaviour of Australian zebra finches in 1954, and a similar study on another British freshwater fish, the river bullhead, in the same year. The latter is particularly well illustrated. His Raids On London London Under Fire 1940-45. By Mrs Robert Henrey. Dent. 255 pp. To anyone who has seen the film “The Battle of Britain,” this book will fill in vividly the details of the destruction suffered by London in the daylight raids of the early years of the war. They do not of course represent the full ordeal endured by London and its people during 1940-45; Mrs Robert Henrey is a faithful chronicler of the events of those years. “London Under Fire” is the composite history contained in three short books by this author. “A Village In Piccadilly,” “The Incredible City," and “The Siege of London.” To her work she brings a reporter’s sense of detail, and a clear view of assorted types of Londoner and the adventures which befell them. Mrs Henrey’s “Village” is the small part of Mayfair known as Shepherd’s Market, and her account of the businesses which grew up there over a period of 200 years, and the family histories of those connected with them is not the least interesting part of her narrative. Most of them were blasted by fire or explosives- into temporary oblivion, but nearly all were to be restored in the fullness of time. The kind of fatalism with which Londoners met the daily challenge of life and death during all types of German assault on the city from 1940 to 1945 is well exemplified by the fact that Mrs Henrey and her little boy Bobby (not to mention her Pekinese, Pouffy) remained in the danger zone throughout the whole war, of which the period that called for most endurance was covered by the second book of the trilogy, “The. Incredible City.” “The Siege of London" which rounds off the book is no less dramatic in its well authenticated accounts bf Hitler’s final attempt to break the spirit of Londoners with his flying bombs. It is, however, in her numerous vignettes of life in London during the war that Mrs Henrey’s journalistic gifts are best displayed. She writes of the small poultry farms, and miniature piggeries for which bombed areas provided the necessary space. She describes the salvage of some priceless books from a Chancery Lane Safe Deposit, and their careful restoration from the dire effects of fire and water by a book-binder of unique skill. She tells stories of refugees reaching London from occupied France; and leaves no doubt about the favourable impact made by American troops on war-weary Londoners. Mrs Henrey’s gifts as a faithful observer of human nature as well as dramatic events should give her book a place in the annals of contemporary historians.

next three papers were more analytical; he probed at the causation and function of pseudofemale and pseudomale behaviour, courtship ceremonies, feather postures and the origins of social signals, “typical intensity” and ritualisation. Then back to more pioneer studies on reproductive behaviour; firstly on an African bird, the bronze mannikin, and then an extensive stickleback study followed by a. behavioural comparison of grassfinches and mannikins. These last three papers were published while Dr Morris was head of the newlyestablished Granada Television and Film Unit at the London Zoo and engaged - in making animal behaviour films and television programmes. In 1959 he became Curator of Mammals for the Zoological Society. The last three papers in the volume deal with the behaviour of the green acouchi—a South American rodent using “scatter hoarding”—and behavioural changes in caged animals resulting in the concepts of neophilic and neophobic behaviour and mal-imprinting. Few scientists produce world bestsellers and this selection of Dr Morris’s papers is interesting because it gives us an understanding of how his mind moves. He observes broadly yet in detail and writes up his' results in a clear, rapid-flowing style that is a pleasure to read and is an object lesson to many scientists. Dr Morris seems to have learned, perhaps through his studies on communication signals in fish, birds and mammals, how to communicate with other humans.