''King Solomon's Ring'' (, , referencing 1 Kings 4:33) is a general-audience

zoological Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the anatomy, structure, embryology, Biological classification, classification, Ethology, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinction, extinct, and ...

book, written by

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

n scientist

Konrad Lorenz Konrad Zacharias Lorenz (Austrian ; 7 November 1903 – 27 February 1989) was an Austrian zoology, zoologist, ethology, ethologist, and ornithologist. He shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Nikolaas Tinbergen and Karl von ...

in 1949. The first English-language edition was published in 1952. The English title refers to the legendary Seal of Solomon, a ring that supposedly gave King

Solomon Solomon (), also called Jedidiah, was the fourth monarch of the Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy), Kingdom of Israel and Judah, according to the Hebrew Bible. The successor of his father David, he is described as having been the penultimate ...

the power to speak to animals. Lorenz claimed to have achieved this feat of communication with several

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

, by raising them in and around his home and observing their behavior. ''King Solomon's Ring'' describes the methods of his investigation and his resulting conclusions about animal psychology. In August 2003, it was

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

's Book of the Week read by Nigel Anthony.

References

*Konrad Lorenz (1961) ''King Solomon's Ring'' Translated by Marjorie Kerr Wilson. Methuen, London. 202 pages. {{Konrad Lorenz 1949 non-fiction books Zoology books Works by Konrad Lorenz