Selous, Edmund — Evolution of Habit in Birds
Constable & Co. London 296, . . HB. 8vo, orig. cloth. Endpapers and final leaf browned. Vg.. First edition. Introduction by H.J. Massingham. A late work by the pioneering British bird behaviourist Edmund Selous (1857-1934), and his final major ornithological book. Drawing on a lifetime of field observation, Selous examines the evolutionary origins of characteristic avian behaviours, including courtship, nest-building, cleanliness and the ritualisation or ‘formalisation’ of habitual actions. Selous was an early advocate of studying birds alive in the field rather than principally through collected specimens, and his attempts to interpret behaviour through natural and sexual selection anticipate important concerns of the emerging science of ethology..
