Reviews

Abstract

appendices.Cloth $18.00, paper $7.95.--Avian ecologists have played important roles in the development and testing of ecological theories dealing with habitat and mate selection, territoriality, foraging strategies, and competition.Certain avian communities lend themselves to studies of these topics better than others, as Orians and his students have demonstrated for blackbirds in the western United States since the early 1960's.In this book, Orians has presented an overview of much of the work done on these birds along with a wealth of heretofore unpublished information.The book is organized around the common theme of the long-term adaptations of blackbirds to the uniquely unstable and highly productive marsh systems found in the West, as contrasted to the more stable but less productive marshes of the eastern United States and South America.Data collection and analysis are directed toward answering specific questions raised by current theory, such as optimization theory for determining diet, central place foraging, and SO on.