Bird behaviour psychical and physiological / by Frank Finn.

  • Frank Finn
Date:
[1919]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Bird behaviour psychical and physiological / by Frank Finn. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    DUCKS AND EVOLUTION studied, for they are not only living, but accessible ; the semi-wader at the beginning of the series, the Australian Magpie-Goose (Anseranas semifalmata) is no rarity, and I have spent much time in study- ing a full-winged specimen at Kew, while the habits of many others of the family exemplifying the gradations I have mentioned are accessible either to direct observation or to any one who can look up bird literature. In fact, the Duck family is one of the most inter- esting of all animal groups for any one interested in biological problems, owing to the wide distribu- tion of its members, their essential and obvious alliance combined with equally striking differences —some obviously adaptive, others more inexplicable *—and I shall have a good deal to say about them in the course of this book, especially as they are familiar exhibits in many public parks, and thus available for everybody’s observation. The availability of birds, as a class, for study gives them, in fact, an importance in the study of animal habits which fairly outweighs their insignificance from the morphological point of view; and I personally have never admitted that the study of structure is more important than that of habit, considering that it only acquires its pre-eminence from the fact of demanding a professional training which is the prerogative of a few only. When one comes to think of it, we ourselves only surpass the other mammals in virtue of our habits, being structurally simply monkeys on our hind legs; yet
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