Arena birds

by Paul A. Johnsgard

In 1871, more than a decade after he unveiled the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin laid out the principles of sexual selection. He suggested that alongside the traits that enable species to survive are those that confer sexual advantage on individuals within the species and thus insure greater transmission to offspring of those individuals' genes. Focusing on some of the most resplendent birds in the avian class - among them ducks, pheasants, grouse, manakins, whydahs, and birds-of-paradise - Paul Johnsgard describes sexual selection in arena-breeding birds, species and groups whose males gather for competitive sexual display in open spaces called arenas or leks. Johnsgard explains Darwin's theory that selection works on the basis of either male dominance - a male wins access to females by bettering his peers - or female choice, in which females survey the field of males and select the most prized mate. Summarizing a vast body of literature, Johnsgard reviews the many elaborations and