WILDLIFE COMMUNITIES: From the Tundra to the Tropics in North America

Those who enjoyed S. Carl Hirsch's recent stimulating introduction to the study of ecology, The Living Community (p. 310-J106) will be interested in the approach used here. The Hirsch book treated the science in overall terms, discussing the concepts involved in studying the interacting relations of living organisms and their environment. Here the study is particularized in relation to the North American biotic communities. The first chapters offer a breakdown of the methods and terminology of the science as applied to this region as a whole, while the rest of the book describes each natural unit on the continent individually. This section is not wholly successful for it tends to catalogue the typical forms of life leaving it to the reader to deduct the qualities and effects of their interdependence. The book, however, will be useful both for students interested in a natural science field project and their accompanying teachers. There is a list of wildlife sanctuaries in North America.