Meanderings in the Bush. Natural History Explorations in Outback Australia R. E. MacMillen , B. J. MacMillen . 2007. Meanderings in the Bush. Natural History Explorations in Outback Australia. Dog Ear Publishing. Indianapolis, Indiana. 233 pp. ISBN 978-159858-383-0, price (paper), $15.95.

Abstract

R. E. MacMillen, B. J. MacMillen. 2007. Meanderings in the Bush. Natural History Explorations in Outback Australia. Dog Ear Publishing, Indianapolis, Indiana, 233 pp. ISBN 978-159858-383-0, price (paper), $15.95. Although Charles Darwin, strangely, showed little personal fondness for the small southern continent, many later naturalists have grown to love the remarkable natural history and people of Australia. Such an enthusiast is Richard E. (Dick) MacMillen, whose career-long fascination with the land, animals, and culture of Australia resulted in a personal story and a perspective that he is now sharing in the form of a book, produced with the assistance of his wife Barbara. Richard MacMillen's research and early scientific publications explored the energy and water relations of various mammals, birds, reptiles, and even semiterrestrial crabs in Australia's arid zone. The limitations imposed by the scarcity and unpredictability of food and water resources in this vast environment represent an attractive research theme for an ecophysiologist such as Dick MacMillen. His book, based on several decades of travel and work in Australia, shows an appreciation for the land, its history, and its fate. The spectacular news that Australian desert rodents derived from a Miocene lineage of the Muridae have evolved physiological and morphological …