Ronald Lanner, professor emeritus, Utah State University, documents his personal research and theories on the obligatory mutualism between the birds, nutcrackers and jays, and pines that produce wingless seeds. He outlines his theory of coevolution through the bird's food dependency upon the seeds and the tree's reproduction mechanism. By distributing the seeds while obtaining food, birds are the driving force in this mutualism, which Lanner names the "Limber pine complex". He also discusses environmental issues that threaten the bird-pine relationship and thus each species. The chapter entitled "Pine Nuts and People," gives a brief social history of the human use of pine seeds.

This book is recommended for larger collections and will be of interest to bird lovers and those with general nature interests.

Paula Wolfe, <pwolfe@uwyo.edu> is Assistant Librarian at the Science Library, University of Wyoming, USA.