Birds, sex and beauty : the extraordinary implications of Charles Darwin's strangest idea / Matt Ridley.

By:

Ridley, Matt [Author]

Material type: Text

TextDescription: xii, 340 pages ; 24 cmISBN:

9780008645526

Subject(s):

Birds

DDC classification:

598.1562 RID

Summary: In all animals, mating is a deal. But few creatures behave as if sex is a simple transaction. Many treat it with reverence, suspicion, angst and violence. In the case of the Black Grouse, the bird at the centre of Matt Ridley's investigation, the males dance and sing for hours a day, for several exhausting months, in an exhausting and sometimes deadly ritual called a 'lek'. To prepare for the ordeal, they grow, preen and display fancy, twisted, bold-colored feathers. But why are males the eager sellers and females the discerning buyers? Why do increasingly baroque and bizarre males put themselves at risk of attack by circling hawks and rival birds? And why are these displays considered beautiful by humans at all?

List(s) this item appears in: Dorcas April 2026

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Holdings
Item type	Current library	Call number	Status	Date due	Barcode
Books	Acquisition, Cataloguing, Classification and Distribution Development	598.1562 RID (Browse shelf(Opens below))	Available		B228635

In all animals, mating is a deal. But few creatures behave as if sex is a simple transaction. Many treat it with reverence, suspicion, angst and violence. In the case of the Black Grouse, the bird at the centre of Matt Ridley's investigation, the males dance and sing for hours a day, for several exhausting months, in an exhausting and sometimes deadly ritual called a 'lek'. To prepare for the ordeal, they grow, preen and display fancy, twisted, bold-colored feathers. But why are males the eager sellers and females the discerning buyers? Why do increasingly baroque and bizarre males put themselves at risk of attack by circling hawks and rival birds? And why are these displays considered beautiful by humans at all?

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Birds, sex and beauty : the extraordinary implications of Charles Darwin's strangest idea / Matt Ridley.