More Than Kin and Less Than Kind: The Evolution of Family Conflict

More Than Kin and Less Than Kind: The Evolution of Family Conflict.-Douglas W. Mock. 2004. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts. 267 pp., 21 black-and-white photographs. ISBN 0-674-01285-2. Cloth, $27.95.-Douglas W. Mock of the University of Oklahoma has dedicated

much of his research career to careful examination of family life in herons and egrets. Through a series of studies combining field observation with rigorous hypothesis-testing, Mock and his students and collaborators have significantly increased our understanding of the proximate and ultimate causes of hatching asynchrony, siblicide, family conflict, and brood reduction in birds. At its 121st Stated Meeting at the University of Illinois in August 2003, the AOU recognized that impressive body of work by naming Mock the recipient of its William Brewster Memorial Award for 2003.

Therefore, it seems entirely fitting that More Than Kin and Less Than Kind should be published less than one year later. In it, Mock summarizes his more than 20 years of work on avian family life while simultaneously synthesizing a large and fascinating literature on the evolution of family conflict for both a general and a biological audience. The book is focused primarily on birds, but briefer considerations of family conflict in plants, insects, mammals, and other organisms enrich the discussion of such topics as sibling rivalry under resource limitation, intergenerational conflict, hatching asynchrony, obligate and facultative siblicide, infanticide, and male-female conflicts over parental care.