The Thing with Feathers (33 page)

bowerbirds

as artists,
209
–12,
220

bower design and construction,
205
–8,
214
,
216
–17

courtship ritual,
206
,
207
–8,
210

great bowerbird,
205
,
207
,
208
,
210
–12,
214
,
215
–16

intelligence,
218
–19

inventiveness and aesthetics,
209
–12,
214
–16

MacGregor’s bowerbird,
218

regent and satin bowerbirds,
206

Vogelkop bowerbird,
206
–7,
214
–16

“Bowerbirds, Art, and Aesthetics” (Endler),
209

brain function

abstract thought,
213

cognitive processing limit of seven items,
46
–47,
154

delayed gratification,
201

episodic memory,
200
–201

fear and fight-or-flight response,
118
–21

human neurons and memory storage,
178
–79

loss with age and disuse,
180
–81

love,
249

of mammals versus birds,
198

memory competitions and memory-palace technique,
169
–71,
175
–78,
179
–80

music and language processing,
130
,
137
–38,
140
–42

olfactory information processing,
18
–19

photomagnetic sensitivity,
17
–18

ratio of brain to body weight,
ix
–x

satisfaction in charitable giving,
241
,
242

self-recognition,
187
,
199

sound mimicry,
138

broad-tailed hummingbirds,
94

Brown, Steven,
142

buntings,
16

Cavagna, Andrea,
37
–38,
39
,
43
–48

Cherry-Garrard, Apsley,
110
,
116

chickadees,
78
,
181

chickens

abundance of,
147

aggression,
148
,
149
,
158
,
159

color vision and response to red,
159

commercial farming,
159
–61

egalitarian groups,
158

logic and intelligence,
154

social hierarchy,
147
–49

triangular relationships,
148
,
157

Chomsky, Noam,
141
–42

Clark’s grebes,
133
–34

Clark’s nutcrackers,
165
–66,
168
,
172
–74,
179
–80

Clive, Sophie Windsor,
29

club-winged manakins,
134

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor,
259

Conway, John,
32
–33

cooperative behavior

as common practice,
225

in complex societies,
237
–38

in differing circumstances,
236
–37

game theory and prisoner’s dilemma strategy,
228
–31

kin selection,
226
–28

long-tailed manakin courtship ritual,
134

self-interest,
233
–34,
240
–42

stability of population and,
232
,
237

strategic cooperative relationships,
231
–33

in unpredictable environment,
226

See also
fairy-wrens

Corning, Peter,
32
,
48

corvids,
192
,
218
.
See also
magpies; nutcrackers

courtship rituals

bowerbirds,
206
,
207
–8,
210

Clark’s grebes,
133
–34

dance as,
133
–35

humans,
141
,
154
,
213
–14

manakins,
133
–34

New Guinea birds of paradise,
133

song as,
141

superb fairy-wrens,
235

wandering albatrosses,
255
–56

whooping cranes,
133

critical systems,
47
–48

dance and music

co-evolution with language,
140
–42

as courtship display,
133
–35,
141

evolutionary functions of music,
141

movement synchronized to rhythmic sound,
135
–37

music as innate human ability,
140
,
142
,
143

as useless evolutionary by-product,
139
–41,
143

vocal mimicry and other preconditions,
137
–39,
142
–43

See also
parrots

Darwin, Charles,
54
–55,
112
–13,
140
,
141
–42

Dawkins, Richard,
208
,
226

Dellis, Nelson,
169
–71,
176
–78

Descent of Man, The
(Darwin),
140

Diamond, Jared,
214
–16

dominance hierarchy.
See
chickens; pecking order

doves,
14
,
252
–53

Dunbar’s number,
158

Dutton, Denis,
213
–14,
216

eBird website,
77
–78

emergence,
31
–32

emotion

as evolutionary survival benefit,
119

human response to albatrosses,
247

impact of art on viewer,
209
,
212

among magpies,
194
–95,
201

among self-aware creatures,
200

wheel of primary emotions,
118
–19

See also
fear; love

Emotion
(Plutchik),
119

emperor penguins,
125

Endler, John,
209
–12

Eurasian magpies.
See
magpies

European starlings.
See
starlings

Evolution of Cooperation, The
(Axelrod),
233

evolutionary strategies

art,
208
,
213
–14,
216

cooperative behaviors,
226
–28,
233
–36

emotion,
119

love and long-term commitment,
249
–50,
263

music,
140
,
141

nomadism,
85
,
87

“Experimental Evidence for Synchronization to a Musical Beat in a Nonhuman Animal” (Patel),
132
–33

fairy-wrens

cooperative nesting among genetic relatives,
224
,
226
–27