Dunnock Behaviour and Social Evolution [Paperback]

At first sight just a small brown bird, the dunnock's unobtrusive appearance belies its extraordinary behavior and mating patterns. This book gives a full account of the mating systems of the dunnock or hedge sparrow,Prunella modularis, which include pairs, a male with two females, two males with one female, and several males with several females. Detailed observations, elegant field experiments, and DNA fingerprinting are combined to show how this variable social organization arises from selfish individuals competing to maximize their own reproductive success. Further experiments reveal how the cuckoo may thwart the dunnock's parental efforts. David Quinn's exquisite drawings provide a visual summary of the bird's behavior. All students of ecology, evolution, and animal behavior will want to be familiar with this work, which addresses the wider issues of the influence of ecology on mating systems and the evolutionary significance of conflict within and between species. This is the third volume in the Oxford Series in Ecology and Evolution, and the first in this series to address behavioral ecology.

1. Why Dunnocks?
2. Study Species and Study Area
3. Population Structure and the Variable Mating System
4. Territorial Behavior: Competition for Habitat and Mates
5. Factors Influencing an Individual's Competitive Success
6. Mate Guarding and Mating: Sexual Conflict
7. Relating Behavior to Maternity and Paternity
8. Reproductive Output from the Different Mating Systems
9. Individual Reproductive Success in the Various Mating Systems
10. Parental Effort by Males and Females in Pairs and Trios
11. How Males Allocate Effort between Broods in Polygyny and Polygynandry
12. Paternity and Parental Effort
13. Parasitism by Cuckoos
14. Sexual Conflict, Parental Care, and Mating Systems

The organization and integration of these topics makes the book useful even to those familiar with his work. It should be particulls3