The robin was hardly understood when David Lack - Britain's most influential ornithologist - started his scientific observations. This book is a landmark in natural history, not just for its discoveries, but because of the approachable style, sharpened with an acute wit. It reads as fascinatingly today as when it was written.
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A new edition of the original biography of the robin, Britain’s favourite bird, full of surprises and wit and with added postscript on recent ornithological advances.
Introduction xiii Preface 1 Preface to fourth edition 4 Note to this edition 7 1 My Robins 9 2 Song 23 3 The Red Breast 36 4 Fighting 47 5 The formation of pairs 59 6 Courtship 71 7 Nest, eggs, and young 81 8 Migration 103 9 Age 119 10 Food, feeding, and being fed upon 131 11 The significance of territory 142 12 Adventures with a stuffed robin 158 13 Recognition 170 14 Tameness 181 15 A digression upon instinct 191 16 Forest robins 202 Epilogue 220 Postscript 1: in David lack’s footsteps, by David Harper 223 Postscript 2: The life of ‘the life of the robin’, by Peter Lack 235 References and notes 249 Index 277
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Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781843681304
Publisert
2016-06-01
Utgiver
Vendor
Pallas Athene Publishers
Vekt
310 gr
Høyde
190 mm
Bredde
125 mm
Aldersnivå
G, 01
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet
Antall sider
304

Forfatter
Introduksjon ved
Afterword by

Om bidragsyterne

David Lack, FRS (1910–1973) has been called Britain's most influential ornithologist. Amongst other achievements he developed what is now known as Lack's Principle which explained the evolution of avian clutch sizes in terms of individual selection as opposed to the competing contemporary idea that they had evolved for the benefit of species (also known as group selection); this has been considered a major development in Darwinian evolution His pioneering life-history studies of the living bird helped in changing the nature of ornithology from what was then a collection-oriented field. He was a longtime director of the Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology at the University of Oxford.