How Animals Tell Time Author:Millicent E. Selsam The bird that migrattes to the South each year has some way of telling time. How it does and how other animals eat or breed or lay eggs at the right time is a subject attracting much scientific attention today. Clearly many of these rhythmical activities are closely related to the movements of the earth and the moon in space. — In this absorbin... more »g study, Millicent Selsam presents the current theories on this important subject. To begin, she sites experiments made with fruit flies, cockroaches, bees, and even human beings to determine the pattern of thier day-night activity. She then continues with a discussion of those animals, such as the grunion, whose behavior is regulated by the moon and the tides. Other animals, such as the squirrel, act according to the season. In conclusion, Mrs. Selsam raises the question of where the biological clock is located in an organism.
The fifth book in the author's series on animal behavior is perhaps her most intriguing. The handsome, scientifically accurate drawings by John Kaufmann add to its distinction.« less