Konrad Lorenz shared the 1973 Nobel Prize for his foundational work in ethology, the study of animal behavior, and King Solomon's Ring introduces general readers to the creatures he observed over a lifetime. The title refers to a legend that Solomon possessed a ring allowing him to speak with animals; Lorenz suggests that patient observation can achieve the same understanding without magic. The book describes jackdaws nesting in his chimney, water-shrews hunting in his aquarium, dogs and wolves revealing their social instincts, and fish whose territorial behavior anticipates human aggression. Lorenz writes with infectious enthusiasm about the pleasures of watching animals closely over extended periods. His Vienna home became a kind of ark, filled with creatures whose behavior he studied by living among them. A chapter on imprinting describes goslings that followed Lorenz as their mother, a discovery that became central to developmental psychology. Another explores the aggressive behavior of cichlid fish, drawing lessons about the biological roots of conflict. The book was first published in German in 1949 and has remained in print because Lorenz writes so vividly and because his observations raise enduring questions about the relationship between animal and human behavior. Readers need no scientific background to appreciate these portraits of creatures rendered strange and familiar through careful attention.