Bird Sense (36 page)

 
10
.        Thomson (
1936
).

 
11
.        Griffin (
1944
).

 
12
.        It is more complex than this – birds use both stars and the magnetic fields: Wiltschko and Wiltschko (
1991
).

 
13
.        Lohmann (
2010
).

 
14
.        Lohmann (
2010
).

 
15
.        Wilstchko and Wiltschko (
2005
); Fleissner et al. (
2003
); Falkenberg et al. (
2010
).

 
16
.        Ritz et al. (
2000
).

 
17
.        The dual receptor hypothesis is controversial, not all biologists accept it, and the mechanisms are hypothetical – so far.

7. EMOTIONS

 
1
.        Darwin (
1871
); Skutch (
1996
:
41
); Gardiner (
1832
).

 
2
.        Predator distraction displays were recorded by Aristotle: see Armstrong (
1956
).

 
3
.        Tinbergen (
1951
); McFarland (
1981
:
151
); see also Hinde (
1966
,
1982
).

 
4
.        Griffin (
1992
) introduced the term ‘cognitive ethology’ – the start of a new field.

 
5
.        Gadagkar (
2005
).

 
6
.        Singer (
1975
); Dunbar and Shultz (
2010
).

 
7
.        The other two are: how did the universe begin? And, how did life begin? We have a reasonable idea about these two, but as far as consciousness is concerned, we have barely begun. For an up-to-date overview of consciousness in humans see Lane (
2009
).

 
8
.        Rolls (
2005
); Paul et al. (
2005
); Cabanac (
1971
).

 
9
.        Jessica Meade, my field assistant on Skomer in
2007
, saw one of our colour-ringed guillemots killed by a great black-backed gull. This was a year with few rabbits – the gulls’ normal prey.

 
10
.        Birkhead and Nettleship (
1984
).

 
11
.        K. Ashbrook, personal communication.

 
12
.        Ashbrook et al. (
2008
); M. P. Harris, personal communication.

 
13
.        Gould (
1848
).

 
14
.        Heinsohn (
2009
).

 
15
.        Tinbergen (
1953
).

 
16
.        Cockrem and Silverin (
2002
).

 
17
.        Cockrem (
2007
).

 
18
.        Shuett and Grober (
2000
).

 
19
.        Carere et al. (
2001
).

 
20
.        Bentham (
1798
).

 
21
.        Braithwaite (
2010
:
78
).

 
22
.        J. Cockrem, personal communication.

 
23
.        Bolhuis and Giraldeau (
2005
).

 
24
.        
Sunday Times
(London),
14
December
2006
.

 
25
.        Gentle and Wilson (
2004
). The younger chicks are when their beak is trimmed the more rapidly they recover and the less pain they seem to suffer, so trimming at one day old is common practice. Alternative methods of beak-trimming using infra-red heat cause less pain, and in some areas there are moves to have beak trimming banned. See:
http://www.poultryhub.org/index.php/Beak_trimming

 
26
.        Certain drugs do the same.

 
27
.        Young and Wang (
2004
).

 
28
.        E. Adkins-Regan, personal communication.

 
29
.        Zeki (
2007
): ‘Judged by the world literature of love, romantic love has at its basis, a concept – that of unity, a state in which, at the height of passion, the desire of lovers is to be united to one another and to dissolve all distance between them. Sexual union is as close as humans can get to achieving that unity.’

 
30
.        Lack (
1968
); Birkhead and Møller (
1992
).

 
31
.        Dunbar and Shultz (
2010
); Dunbar (
2010
).

 
32
.        Harrison (
1965
).

 
33
.        Nelson (
1978
:
111
).

 
34
.        Catchpole and Slater (
2008
).

 
35
.        Brown et al. (
1988
). Other co-operative breeding birds perform group displays, including communal dust bathing seen in white-winged choughs, and a remarkable dawn and dusk ‘group dance’ in Arabian babblers in which ‘the birds press against each other, squeezing under, over and between partners in a curious frenzy of activity’.

 
36
.        Keverne et al. (
1989
); see also Dunbar (
2010
); I. Pepperberg, personal communication; she was keen to stress that these were anecdotal observations only.

 
37
.        Cabanac (
1971
).

POSTSCRIPT

 
1
.        Heppner (
1965
).

 
2
.        Montgomerie and Weatherhead (
1997
).

 
3
.        Simmons et al. (
1988
).

 
4
.        Gould, S. J. (
1985
).

 
5
.        Rosenblum (
2010
).

 
6
.        Chickens experiments: Pizzari et al. (
2003
); the increase in sperm numbers with a novel female is known as the Coolidge effect (after the American president Calvin Coolidge): the story is that ‘the President and Mrs Coolidge were being shown [separately] around an experimental government farm. When [Mrs Coolidge] came to the chicken yard she noticed that a rooster was mating very frequently. She asked the attendant how often that happened and was told, “Dozens of times each day.” Mrs Coolidge said, “Tell that to the President when he comes by.” Upon being told, President asked, “Same hen every time?” The reply was, “Oh, no, Mr President, a different hen every time.” President: “Tell that to Mrs Coolidge”’ (Dewsbury
2000
). Turnstone: Whitfield (
1987
); pigeons: Jitsumori et al. (
1999
).

 
7
.        Roseblum (
2010
).

 
8
.        Roseblum (
2010
).

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—
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2003
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––
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