Volume 43, Number 1 · January 11, 1996
Cracking the Bird Code
By John Terborgh
Bird Song: Biological Themes and Variations
by C. K. Catchpole, by P. J. B. Slater
Cambridge University Press, 248 pp., $32.95
Have you ever lain awake at night wondering how, when, and why birds sing? If so, Bird Song may be the book for you. But no one should imagine that it is about the charming and euphonious (or sometimes cacophonous) things birds say to one another. Catchpole and Slater present a competent and logically organized synthesis of the vast scientific literature on bird song, concentrating almost entirely on experimental investigations by researchers. 'Bird song' is defined here in the narrowest sense as 'long, complex vocalizations produced by males in the breeding season.' All avian utterances that do not conform to this narrow definition, and there are many, are excluded from consideration. The text has citations to nearly seven hundred scientific sources, and its dry prose makes liberal use of technical jargon. It begins with a concise review of the neurophysiology of sound production and sound reception in birds, discusses how songs are learned, and concludes with an inquiry into the evolutionary function of song and its variability in nature. It tells, in fact, a story of remarkable scientific advances.
Review, 4468 words
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