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Migration: The Biology of Life on the Move . Second Edition. By Hugh Dingle . Oxford
and New York: Oxford University Press. $125.00 (hardcover); $64.95 (paper). x +
326 p. + 5 pl.;...

Article  in  The Quarterly Review of Biology · June 2015

DOI: 10.1086/681481

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June 2015 NEW BIOLOGICAL BOOKS
Migration: The Biology of Life on the Move.
Second Edition.
By Hugh Dingle. Oxford and New York: Oxford Uni-
versity Press. $125.00 (hardcover); $64.95 (pa-
per). x ⫹ 326 p. ⫹ 5 pl.; ill.; index. ISBN: 978-
0-19-964038-6 (hc); 978-0-19-964039-3 (pb). 2014.
This is the second edition of Hugh Dingle’s book
on migration, but for all purposes it is more a
sequel than a second edition (by the author’s own
definition) and most studies described in the vol-
ume have been conducted after the release of the
first edition in 1996. The book takes a strictly
evolutionary approach to migration that allows it
to provide a comprehensive and insightful over-
view of migration as a biological phenomenon
across all species. I found this to be one of the best
qualities of the volume, which personally opened
my mind to how widespread and diverse migration
strategies are. Despite the author’s obvious efforts
to incorporate species from as many taxa as possi-
ble to its discussions, the majority of the book still
focuses on bird and insect migrations, which re-
flects the existing bias in research conducted in
the field.
This volume contains 16 chapters and is orga-
nized into four parts. The first part is dedicated to
defining and describing migration. The question
“what is migration?” is far from trivial. There is still
much confusion in the literature regarding the
meaning of the terms dispersal and migration, and
the book makes an effort to put order into the
confusion and give a clear definition to different
types of animal movements including migration. I
found the author’s arguments supporting his def-
initions to be very convincing and I believe this is
one of the main contributions of the volume. Part
2 describes proximate factors that influence migra-
tory behavior and pathways. These include atmo-
spheric and oceanic conditions, the physiology of
migrants, biomechanical and bioenergetics con-
straints, and migrants’ navigation mechanisms.
Dingle does an excellent job of giving an in-depth
review of the subjects without delving too deeply
into them, which could have made the chapter
inaccessible to most readers. The third part de-
scribes ultimate factors in migrations, illustrating
different migratory life histories and their evolu-
tion. The final part considers human interactions
with migration and briefly looks at the importance
of migration to conservation and management. I
was very disappointed by this part. It is the shortest
part in the book and although it is very well written
and interesting, it just lists a few topics (such as
migration and pest management or migration and
climate change) independently, without trying to
make any overall discussion of how migration is
affected by anthropogenic impacts, and how we
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can use the great amount of knowledge that the
volume contains to try and conserve it.
Despite this minor disappointment, I highly rec-
ommend this book to both students and profes-
sionals. It is extremely interesting and very clearly
written. Its logical structure makes it easy to follow
and builds up the comparative overview of migra-
tion very nicely. In addition, each chapter ends
with a summary section that does a good job of
condensing the chapters to short sections that can
be read by those who do not have the time to read
the entire volume. I do hope that the third edition
of the book will give the discussion on migration
and conservation the attention it deserves.
Oded Berger-Tal, Ecology & Evolutionary Biol-
ogy, University of California, Los Angeles, California
and Applied Animal Ecology Division, Institute for
Conservation Research, San Diego Zoo Global, San
Diego, California
NEUROBIOLOGY
Neuroanatomical Terminology: A Lexicon of
Classical Origins and Historical Founda-
tions.
By Larry W. Swanson. Oxford and New York: Oxford
University Press. $125.00. xiii ⫹ 1054 p.; ill.; in-
dex. ISBN: 978-0-19-534062-4. 2015.
“The terminology of the brain is in great confu-
sion. Most of the more obvious parts were named
before their functions were known, and the same
part often receiving many different names, and
sometimes the same name being applied to very
different parts” (C. J. Herrick. 1915. An Introduc-
tion to Neurology. Philadelphia (PA): W. B. Saun-
ders. Page 115).
This volume is an extended effort to address the
issues raised in the above quote by means of a
historical and contemporary Lexicon of Standard
Terms (pp. 24 –776), together with a set of 10
appendixes titled Systematic Parts Lists for Ner-
vous System Ontology (pp. 777– 814). This book
cannot be reviewed using the standard format of a
summary of the author’s arguments, evidence, in-
ferences, and concluding with the reviewer’s com-
ments. Rather, the individual parts of this publication
will each be summarized, with particular focus on
the two sections noted above.
The first part of the book consists of four chap-
ters (pp. 1–23). In Chapter 1 the author details a
connectionist explanatory framework for model-
ing three nested (micro-, meso-, and macro-) levels
of visual resolution, description, and analysis.