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Book Reviews The Condor 89:23C-233 0 The CooperOrnithological Society 1987 BOOK REVIEWS MARCY F. LAWTON, EDITOR Habitat selectionin birds.-Martin L. Cody [ed.]. is a processof hierarchicalchoices. For example, Hutto 1985. Academic Press. Orlando. FL. xvi + 558 D. notes that at general levels (i.e., geographicalregions), $69.50. the selection of a habitat may be made only once or In 1933 David Lack publisheda pathbreakingpaper twice during the lifetime of a bird, and at such levels entitled Habitat selectionin birds which disnuted the habitat choice tends to be based more on innate re- reigning notion that birds chose habitats solely on the sponsesthan learnedpreferences. At finer levels,choices basis of climate, food, or nest sites. Equally important are made repeatedlyon the basisof learning, and prox- in Lack’s view was the “nsvcholonical factor.” Everv imate cues more closely match ultimate factors such decade or two since then, > major contribution has as food abundanceor safe nesting sites. appeareddealing with the sametopic: Svlrdson in 1949, Various authors sound the cry for an experimental Hildtn in 1965, Partridge in 1978, and, most recently, approach. To elucidate the mechanismsof habitat se- this collection of papers whose title recalls Lack. lection and to advancebeyond the correlationalstudies The collection is made up of 18 chapterscontributed of the past, argueMorse, Sherry and Holmes, we need by 22 authorsfrom sevencountries. Many ofthe papers to manipulate habitat structure or alter speciescom- represent long-term studies (for example, Sherry and positions,while simultaneouslygathering observation- Holmes at Hubbard Brook, Terborgh in Peru). All of al data in control plots. In this light, Greenberg’s (1983) the authors are recognized authorities in their field. important experimental work on neophobia in wood The papersare groupedsomewhat arbitrarily into four warblers should have been included in Morse’s review. sections: an introductory section by Cody, a section The difficulty of investigating habitat selection exper- called “Habitat selection in specific bird taxa,” a sec- imentally may be reflected in the fact that the only tion called “Habitat selectionin specifichabitat types,” experimental studyin the book is that ofAlatalo, Lund- and a catch-all sectioncalled “A variety of approaches berg, and Ulfstrand, who added nest boxes to Pied to habitat selectionin birds.” The title of nearly everv Flycatcher territories, thereby elevating population paper contains the phrase “habitat selection” (;‘. in densities and altering social systems.A most provoc- island versusmainland birds,” “. in raptorial birds,” ative paper is that of Herrera, who hypothesizesthat “ . in Amazonian birds,” etc.) which raisesthe hope birds that consume fruits and disperseseeds have the that the book comprises an integrated series of com- unusualcapacity to improve their habitat over ecolog- prehensive essayson the subject. The book falls short ical and evolutionary time, increasingits carrying ca- of achieving such a synthesisbecause of the diversity pacity. Herrera’s argument could be extended to pol- of authors, viewpoints, and methodologies, not to linators as well. Rosenzweigcloses the volume with an mention the sheer enormity of the problem of habitat optimistic appraisalof the role theory can play in guid- selection in birds. It also could have profited by in- ing studiesof habitat selectionand a demonstration of cluding a concluding chapter taking stock of how far the application of foragingmodels to habitat selection. we have progressedsince Lack and by having abstracts As editor, Cody deserves credit for the volume’s or summaries of individual papers. These are minor three major strengths. First, this is an exceptionally quibbles, however, in view of the fact that this is un- eclectic book, citing the relevant contemporary liter- questionably the best collective work to be published ature on habitat selectionin birds worldwide. The in- on the topic of habitat selection in birds. troductory chapter by Cody, for instance,contains ten The importance of consideringscale and the level of pages of references, many of which, drawn from the resolution in habitat selection is stressed repeatedly Europeanliterature, may be unfamiliar to most North throughout the volume. In Klopfer’s long-term view, American ornithologists. (Cody’s bibliographic con- this is one of three critical insights of the last 20 years tributions make up for the impenetrable figures that (the other two being the recognition of the importance illustrate each of his three chapters.) Second, the con- of sensoryphysiology and the interaction of experience tributions to this volume were selectedto allow com- and innate preferences in habitat choice by birds). parisonsbetween avian taxa, geographicalregions, and Wiens, who emphasized the problem in earlier papers seasons.For example, Cody’s censusessuggest that Old with Rotenberry, is joined here by Sherry and Holmes, World sylviine warblersoverlap broadly in habitat use; Burger,and Hutto. Yet each author develops a slightly interspecificterritoriality is common in the group.New different interpretation of the usefulnessof considering World wood warblers, on the other hand, exhibit dis- scale.In a paper notable for its clarity, statisticalrigor, tinct species-specifichabitat preferences,according to and originality, Sherry and Holmes demonstrate that Morse. Other aspectsof habitat selectionin these same the dispersionof passerineterritories at Hubbard Brook subfamiliesof birds are discussedby Winkler and Leis- can be consideredto be clumped, random, or uniform, ler (ecomorphology of sylviine warblers), Sherry and depending upon quadrate size. An important conclu- Holmes (dispersion of breeding wood warblers), and sion is that distinct factors (social facilitation, intra- Hutto (habitat use by migrating wood warblers). For specificterritoriality, interspecificaggression, floristics) Old and New World warblers,at least,an exceptionally determine dispersionpatterns at different spatialscales. complete picture of habitat selection emerges. Cody, Burgerand Hutto both point out that habitat selection Wiens and Burger’s reviews of grassland,shrub-steppe, v301 BOOK REVIEWS 231 and marsh-inhabitingbirds, respectively,allow a useful The dialectical biologist.-Richard Levins and comparison of habitat selection in different open hab- Richard Lewontin. 1985. Harvard University Press, itats. Several authors encouragethe consideration of Cambridge, MA. ix + 303 p. alternative explanationsof habitat selection by taking Anyone who is not brain-dead will be jolted into a mechanistic approach, with Walsberg discussing seriousreflection by The Dialectical Biologist,Levins physiologicalconsequences of microhabitat selection, and Lewontin’s recent attempt to show how to ap- Winkler and Leisler concentrating on morphological proach the businessof sciencefrom a dialectical per- adaptations, and Klopfer and Ganzhom focusing on spective. A collection of polemics and essays,many behavior. The latter paper is of particular interest be- previously published, the book is meant as a sampler causeit actually addressesthe question of “selection” of dialecticalthinking, rather than a linearly developed (i.e., choice) of habitats. Too many papers in this area textbook on how to think dialectically. Except for the tacitly equate the observed distributionsof birds with last chapter, a rather formal description of dialectical habitat selection-regardlessof whether distributions principles that should have come first, the essaysclus- result from historical accident, randomly directed dis- ter loosely around three themes: evolution, statistical persal, aggressiveexclusion by other animals, or other analysis,and the relationship of scienceand society. causesor constraints.Hutto consequentlyrecommends One goal of the book is to show that science and the more neutral term “habitat use.” societyare parts of a seamlesswhole and that Cartesian The third strengthof this book is that it raises once reductionism is both ontologically incorrect and had again a central questionin avian ecology:why do birds to result in scientific service to capitalist atrocities. occur where they do? The question is so enduring and Levins and Lewontin are far from successfulin this intractable becausethe subject of habitat selectionen- endeavor. The philosophical stance differs little from compassesforaging theory, dispersal theory, biogeog- that in Engel’s Anti-Diihring (1878) and Dialectics OJ raphy, social behavior and mate choice, reproductive Nature (1940) except that, where Engels saw meta- biology,physiological ecology, the development of cog- physics as the evil force, Levins and Lewontin view nition and the role of learning, functional morphology, Cartesian reductionism as the enemy. The key beliefs speciation,and community ecology,to name just a few of the opposition, however, remain the same: related fields touched on in this book. Rosenzweigla- (a) Any whole system can be analyzed into homoge- ments the paucity of theory in the study of habitat neous parts. selection,but the greater problem may be that each of (2) The parts are ontologicallyprior to the whole and the fields listed above has its own, independently have intrinsic properties that they possessin iso- evolving body of theory. The key breakthroughin the lation and convey to the whole. studyof habitat selectionmay be the discovery of prin- (3) Causesare separatefrom effects. Causesare prop- ciples that unify these fields
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