Abstract
A FRESH edition of Eliot Howard's classic book on “Territory in Bird Life” is indeed welcome, for it has long been difficult to obtain a copy of a work that every ornithologist should read. Published in 1920, it put forward the theory, supported by the author's many and painstaking observations, that the chief pivot of bird-life was territorial, nearly all birds needing to secure and hold a territory as a basis of their sexual activity and breeding cycle. This seemingly simple theory was found to have far-reaching implications, and to throw light on many aspects of bird behaviour ; indeed, its importance has become more and more apparent with the passing of the years. It is good to have this new edition of so important a book.
Territory in Bird Life
By Eliot Howard. New edition. Pp. 224 + 11 plates. (London and Glasgow: Wm. Collins, Sons, and Co., Ltd., 1948.) 10s. 6d. net.
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PITT, F. Territory in Bird Life. Nature 162, 595 (1948). https://doi.org/10.1038/162595e0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/162595e0