摘要:

Summary.1The aggressive and courtship behaviour of captive individuals belonging to eight species of the Fringillidae was studied.2The agonistic behaviour is described: the head‐forward threat posture, found in all these species, occurs also in other families and is probably primitive.3The courtship behaviour of each species is described. During courtship, each bird tends to behave in three incompatible ways‐to attack, flee from and behave sexually towards its mate. Each courtship pattern is associated with a certain range of strengths of theae three tendencies. (The sense in which “tendency” is used, and the methods by which tendencies can be assessed, are discussed.)4The seasonal changes in behaviour as the time of copulation approaches are traced for each species. In most (probably all) cases the male is usually dominant in winter, but, as his tendency to behave sexually increases, his tendency to attack his mate decreases and to flee from her increases. The female's behaviour changes similarly, but later in the season and less than the male's. The female is thus able to become dominant for much of the pre‐copulatory period. This inversion of dominance is most marked in the Chaffinch. At copulation both sexes of all species have strong tendencies to flee and to behave sexually, but rarely attack.5In all the species studied (except perhaps the Bullfinch) the early courtship displays of the male are modified forms of the head‐forward threat posture. Such displays are sometimes associated with attacks on the female, but in other cases the male has a strong tendency to flee and his body is oriented obliquely or laterally to her.6Each display can be analysed into a number of components‐wing‐raising, flufling, crouching, etc. Each such component may occur in many different postures, but is (nearly) always associated with the same tendency (attacking, fleeing or behaving sexually). Much of the variability in the postures is thus related to variations in the associated tendencies which result in different components being present and/or emphasized. The relationship between particular components and particular tendencies holds not only for the different displays of one species, but (at any rate for most components) for all the finch species studied.7Courtship feeding is a ritualized displacement activity, though there is no certain evidence that it ever depended on conflicting tendencies. It probably promotes habituation to the proximity of the mate, hence facilitating copulation and reducing aggressiveness between the pair in the parental phase.8Except for nest‐building in Canaries and Greenfinches, other ritualized displacement activities are apparently not important in the courtship of any of the species studied.9Species‐characteristic differences between male and female behaviour affect all phasesof reproductive behaviour, and do not lie in the independent elimination of particular patterns from the repertoire of either sex. Sex differentiation in colour pattern is roughly correlated with that in behaviour. Morris's (1954) explanation of “pseudo‐female” behaviour in terms of “sparking over” is discussed.10The behavioural evidence indicates that Greenfinch and Canary are very closely related, and that Chaffinch (and perhaps Brambling) are not closely related to the Carduelines.It does not, however, support Tordoff's (1954) suggestion that Fringilla is more closely related to buntings than to Carduelines, or that Carduelines are very closely related to the Estrildines.11The functions of court

ISSN:0019-1019    

DOI:10.1111/j.1474-919X.1956.tb03027.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1956

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Summary.The bird population of the Norway spruce communities was studied for seven years in Slovakia, by quadrat counts and transects. The work was done between 300 and 1700 metres a.s.l. mostly in pure stands.A total of 63 species of birds in 46 genera and 21 families was found. Of these, 43% were resident, 57% migrant and vagrant. The zoogeographical origin of the species is considered and they are tabulated according to altitudinal distribution. They are divided into food groups—herbivores, mixed feeders, insectivores and carnivores—and into five strata or zones according to the food‐niches.The species populations are listed by numbers of individuals and weights in grams per 100 hectares of spruce forest—totals about 1300 birds weighing about 48,000 grams. The results are compared with data from other countries and communities. Both density and biomass are lower than in other forest communities in Slovakia, the highest being in the bottomland forests around the Danube.Coal Tit, Chaffinch and Song Thrush (i.e. mixed feeders) are the species forming over 5% of the population and its biomass. The next most important group is the herbivores and the third insec

ISSN:0019-1019    

DOI:10.1111/j.1474-919X.1956.tb03028.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1956

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Summary.1The correct determination of the species ofApusis difficult. Their extreme adaptation to aerial life allows for few trivial or incidental differences. Some species look much alike and some conspecific races look very unlike. In several instances two conspecific races look more different from each other than one of them does from another species.2Forms of the same species tend to be darker in areas of higher rainfall and smaller at lower latitudes, the differences in some cases being so striking that true affinities were not previously recognized.3The instances of strong resemblance between races of different species are due partly to all the species ofApuspossessing a similar basic colour pattern and partly to convergent adaptation.4The relative length of the first and second primaries provides a useful taxonomic character, the second primary being longer in the forms with strongly forked tails.5The winter ranges of the European species are reviewed.6The following changes in specific status from the list by Peters (1940) are advocated. The more tentative proposals are indicated by (t).

ISSN:0019-1019    

DOI:10.1111/j.1474-919X.1956.tb03029.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1956

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Summary.1The history of Kittiwake colonics at Marsden, Co. Durham and North Shields, Northumberland is given. Since the original colonization of the area in 1930, nine colonies have been formed which, in 1954, ranged in size from 13 to 648 nests.2New colonies were formed by birds being present on the site a year before breeding commenced. Immigration continued for at least the first four years of a colony's existence. Colour‐ringing showed that adult Kittiwakes exhibited both colony‐and site‐tenacity.3A large proportion of non‐breeding birds was present, higher in the younger colonies. These birds returned to the colonies later than the breeding birds and the majority were young birds returning for the first time. In 1953 at least 19% of the population in the area were non‐breeding birds.4Colony age and colony size were closely correlated. The return to the colonies and onset of breeding within the colonies occurred first in the oldest and last in the youngest colonies.5Birds of the same age bred at the same time irrespective of colony size. Furhter, the spread of breeding within large colonies was greater than in small ones, whereas the reverse would have been expected if “social stimulation” was of major importance.6It is conducted that the age of birds within a colony is more important than “social stimulation” in influencing the

ISSN:0019-1019    

DOI:10.1111/j.1474-919X.1956.tb03030.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1956

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Summary.1A colony of about 500 pairs of Brünnich's Guillemots was watched between 23 July and 20 August 1954, i.e. over the fledging period.2The calls of adults and chicks, and the situations in which they are used, are described.3Fights were very frequent, but not between established neighbours, who were often touching one another when brooding.4The behaviour pattern used when the chick leaves the cliff, in which both adults and young become very excited, often miscarries, leading to protracted mobbing of the chick on the water.5The behaviour of non‐breeding birds is described, and the reasons for their presence are discussed.6The flight characteristics of the bird, and its special techniques for landing and taking off from vertical cliffs are described.7Predation was slight.8A method of measuring activity is described. It was found that there was no diurnal rhythm of activity, and that the interval between feeds remained roughly constant throughout the period of observation.9Inadequate results were obtained with a method for estimating the proportion of non‐breeders in the co

ISSN:0019-1019    

DOI:10.1111/j.1474-919X.1956.tb03031.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1956

数据来源: WILEY

ISSN:0019-1019    

DOI:10.1111/j.1474-919X.1956.tb03032.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1956

数据来源: WILEY

ISSN:0019-1019    

DOI:10.1111/j.1474-919X.1956.tb03033.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1956

数据来源: WILEY

ISSN:0019-1019    

DOI:10.1111/j.1474-919X.1956.tb03034.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1956

数据来源: WILEY

ISSN:0019-1019    

DOI:10.1111/j.1474-919X.1956.tb03035.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1956

数据来源: WILEY

ISSN:0019-1019    

DOI:10.1111/j.1474-919X.1956.tb03036.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1956

数据来源: WILEY