rdf-syntax-grammar
mods:
  schema location: http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3 http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/v3/mods-3-2.xsd
  title info:
    title: Birds, sex and beauty
    sub title: the extraordinary implications of Charles Darwin's strangest idea
  name:
    name part: Ridley, Matt
    role:
      role term: creator
    role:
      role term: author.
  type of resource: text
  genre: bibliography
  origin info:
    place:
      place term: nyu
    date issued: 2025
    edition: First U.S. edition.
    issuance: monographic
  language:
    language term: eng
  physical description:
    form: print
    extent: xii, 340 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 24 cm
  abstract: In all animals, mating is a deal. But few creatures behave as if sex is a simple transaction. Many treat it with reverence, suspicion, angst and violence. In the case of the Black Grouse, the bird at the centre of Matt Ridley's investigation, the males dance and sing for hours a day, for several exhausting months, in an exhausting and sometimes deadly ritual called a 'lek'. To prepare for the ordeal, they grow, preen and display fancy, twisted, bold-colored feathers. But why are males the eager sellers and females the discerning buyers? Why do increasingly baroque and bizarre males put themselves at risk of attack by circling hawks and rival birds? And why are these displays considered beautiful by humans at all?
  note: Matt Ridley.
  note: Originally published in Great Britain in 2025 by 4th Estate, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. -- title verso
  note: Includes bibliographical references and index.
  subject:
    topic: Birds
    topic: Sexual behavior
  subject:
    topic: Lek behavior
  subject:
    name:
      name part: Darwin, Charles
      name part: 1809-1882
  subject:
    topic: Oiseaux
    topic: Sexualité
  subject:
    topic: Arènes de parade
  classification: QL698.3 .R53 2025
  classification: 598.156/2
  identifier: 9780063342989
  identifier: 0063342987
  record info:
    record content source: YDX
    record creation date: 240714
    record change date: 20250505123321.7
    record identifier: in00005644787
    language of cataloging:
      language term: eng