Portland Public Library

The ascent of birds, how modern science is revealing their story, John Reilly

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 278-312) and index

platesmapsillustrations

index present

non fiction

The ascent of birds

bibliography

1013594714

John Reilly

how modern science is revealing their story

Timeline -- Geological ages -- Prologue : Evolution of an idea -- Part one. The non-passerines. The tinamou's story : death of a paradigm -- The vegavis's story : the cradle of modern birds -- The waterfowl's story : refugia, high living and sex -- The hoatzin's story : an improbable voyage -- The penguin's story : phenotype and environment -- The storm petrel's story : sympatry versus allopatry -- The albatross's story : the species problem -- The godwit's story : quantum compasses -- The buzzard's story : accidental speciation -- The owl's story : nightlife -- The oilbird's story : evolutionary distinctiveness -- The hummingbird's story : a route of evanescence -- The parrot's story : vicariance and dispersal -- Part two. The passerines. The New Zealand wren's story : a novel foot -- The manakin's story : why so many suboscines? -- The sapayoa's story : odd one out -- The scrubbird's story : where song began -- The bowerbird's story : extended phenotypes -- The crow's story : cognitive skills -- The bird-of-paradise's story : sexual selection -- The starling's story : structural colours -- The thrush's story : sweepstake dispersals -- The sparrow's story : hybridisation and speciation -- The zebra finch's story : evolution of birdsong -- The white-eye's story : supertramps and great speciators -- The crossbill's story : adaptive radiation and coevolution -- The tanager's story : a final flourish -- Postscript : the sixth extinction