Life-Histories of North American Birds, from the Parrots to the Grackles, with special reference to their Breeding Habits and Eggs Feathered Friends: Old and New Coloured Figures of the Eggs of British Birds, with Descriptive Notices A Handbook to the Game-Birds Among British Birds in their Nesting Haunts, illustrated by the Camera

Nature ◽  
1897 ◽  
Vol 56 (1437) ◽  
pp. 25-26
Keyword(s):  
Special Reference ◽  
North American ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Game Birds

Life histories of North American game birds: a reanalysis

1988 ◽  
Vol 66 (8) ◽  
pp. 1906-1912 ◽  
Author(s):  
Todd W. Arnold
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
North American ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Life History Traits ◽  
Reproductive Effort ◽  
Cost Of Reproduction ◽  
Reproductive Value ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Game Birds ◽  
The Cost

Recently, Zammuto (R. M. Zammuto. 1986. Can. J. Zool. 64: 2739–2749) suggested that North American game birds exhibited survival–fecundity trade-offs consistent with the "cost of reproduction" hypothesis. However, there were four serious problems with the data and the analyses that Zammuto used: (i) the species chosen for analysis ("game birds") showed little taxonomic or ecological uniformity, (ii) the measures of future reproductive value (maximum longevity) were severely biased by unequal sample sizes of band recoveries, (iii) the measures of current reproductive effort (clutch sizes) were inappropriate given that most of the birds analyzed produce self-feeding precocial offspring, and (iv) the statistical units used in the majority of analyses (species) were not statistically independent with respect to higher level taxonomy. After correcting these problems, I found little evidence of survival–fecundity trade-offs among precocial game birds, and I attribute most of the explainable variation in life-history traits of these birds to allometry, phylogeny, and geography.

Life histories of birds: clutch size, longevity, and body mass among North American game birds

1986 ◽  
Vol 64 (12) ◽  
pp. 2739-2749 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard M. Zammuto
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Clutch Size ◽  
Body Mass ◽  
North American ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Life History Traits ◽  
Feeding Habits ◽  
Generic Level ◽  
Mean Values ◽  
Game Birds

Clutch size, longevity, and body mass data for 54 North American game birds were extracted from the literature to test the hypothesis that a trade-off exists between fecundity and survival among avian species. Species with larger clutch sizes live shorter lives than species with smaller clutch sizes (r = −0.38, n = 54, P < 0.01). This relationship still holds when the effects of body mass are removed (r = −0.34, 51 df, P < 0.05), indicating that the relationship is not simply a function of body mass. This latter finding is inconsistent with previous life-history studies, perhaps because previous researchers did not attempt to remove body mass effects from their life-history investigations. Results are similar (P < 0.05) when mean values of life-history traits are examined at the generic level. However, no relationships (P > 0.05) among mean values of life-history traits occur at any taxonomic level higher than genus or when species are grouped with respect to feeding habits. This might be the result of low sample size. I conclude that the evolution of clutch size is influenced by longevity, or vice versa, among species and genera of North American game birds.

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