000			01354nam a22002057a 4500
003			OSt
005			20260422161331.0
008			260422b |||||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d
020			_a9780008645526
040			_aKenya National Library Service
082			_a598.1562 RID
100			_aRidley, Matt _eAuthor
245			_aBirds, sex and beauty : _bthe extraordinary implications of Charles Darwin's strangest idea / _cMatt Ridley.
300			_axii, 340 pages ; _c24 cm.
520			_bIn 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?
650			_aBirds.
942			_2ddc _cBK _n0
999			_c492306 _d492306