RÖVID KÖZLEMÉNYEK

Vándor partfutó (Calidris melanotos) Magyarországon

1987. szeptember 27-én a szabadszállási Kisréten réti cankók és havasi partfutók társaságában egy vándor partfutót figyeltünk meg. A madárról a helyszínen pontos leírást készítettünk, a legfon­tosabb a sötét begy és mell a fehér hastól való éles elhatárolása volt. A madarat kézi távcsövekkel és állványon álló 40-szeres nagyítású egyszemű távcsővel hosszasan figyelhettük. Másnap Boros Emil délelőtt egészen közelről látta, délután Dr. Bankovics Attila, Márkus Ferenc és Waliczky Zoltán is megfigyelték ugyanazon a helyen. Október l-jén Sós Endre és Szigeti Balázs még egyszer látták.

A vándor partfutóval a hazánkban eddig előfordult madárfajok száma 350-re emelkedett.

Schmidt András — Sós Endre

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KÖNYVISMERTETÉS

Chris Mead. 1983: Bird Migration

(Country Life Books, Feltham, 224 pp.)

A szerző, aki pályáját tanárként kezdte, 25 éve vezető egyénisége az angol (BTO) és az Euró­pai (EURING) vonulás kutatásnak. Az amatőr ornitológusoknak szánt, fényképekkel gazdagon illuszt­rált könyvben a hatalmas terepi gyakorlattal és szcleslátókörű, magas szakmai kultúrával rendelkező omitológus lebilincselő stílusával igényes tanárként szól az érdeklődőkhöz. A kötet a Holarcticum madarain keresztül fajok sokaságával illusztrálva a madárvonulással kapcsolatos ismereteinket veszi sorra. Ismerteti a különböző vonulási stratégiákat és vonulási mintázatokat (patterns of migration). A nagyobb fajcsoportok jellemzése közben több mint száz faj vonulási mintázatának térképét is közli. Foglalkozik a repülés és vonulás energetikai, morfológiai, ökológiai és evolúciós összefüggé­seivel, a vonulás kutatásának módszereivel. Igen olvasmányos és tényanyagban gazdag a vonulás fel­ismerésének történetéről szóló fejezt. Sajnos angol szokás szerint a madárnevek mellől a latin nevek hiányoznak, és ezen a tudományos névjegyzék sem sokat segít, mert a fajok rendszertani sorrendben szerepelnek.

Büki József

J. R. Krebs and N. B. Davies: An Introduction to Behavioural Ecology. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford, 1987.

The evolution of behavioural ecology is impressive. The first edition of 'An Introduction to Behavioural Ecology' was released in 1981, and since then dozens of handbooks, Conference papers have been published, and the behavioural ecologists are heading for the launch of a new Journal.

The introductory textbook consists of 15 chapters. Almost all chapters were completely rew-ritten, and two new chapters were added. The first chapter gives a generál glimpse of the various aspects of behavioural ecology, while the next chapter is on two ways of the hypotheses testing. The behavioural ecologists could successfully apply the experimentál approach of the psychologists (model — hypothesis — test) not only in the well-controlled laboratories, but in the field too. The second important tool of the hypothesis testing is the comparative approach which was adopted from the classical ethology. The subsequent chapter focus on the economic decision of individuals including the optimality models and the cost-benefit analyses, while one chapter discuss the evolutionary arms races e.g. mimicry, the advantage of warning coloration, and the possible ways of the host-parasite evolution. However, the classical prey-predator model of the population biology was left out. The competition for resources and territoriality is the subject of the new fifth chapter. The sixth chapter discuss the various kinds of benefits and costs of the flocking behaviour, and the seventh one is on both the theory and application of ESS. The sexual conflict, parental care and mating Systems are probably the 'hottest spots' of the behavioural ecology, these chapters were massively enlarged and updated, compared with the first edition. The chapter on the alternative strategies is a good collection of case studies on various kinds of fitness-improving evolutionary games. Three chapters have been devoted to the genetical background of the social behaviour and to their conclusions on the social behaviour of both vertebrates and insects. The last two chapters (evolution of signals and the conclu­sions) have remained relatively unchanged. However, as the authors warn us in the conclusion the gene or individual selection might not be always the only plausible explanatipn for the evolutionary

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changes, one has to take account of other mechanisms, e.g. selection at higher levels or the non-adap-tive evolutionary forces.

The text is clear and forceful, both the drawings and the photos support the understanding of topics. The author index and the subject index facilitate the usage as a reference book. The book has become thicker containing more figures than the first edition, so it gives a fine impression.

To summarize, the 'An Introduction to Behavioural Ecology' is a well-written, comprehensive textbook, and I would recommend it not only for students of behaviour, but for the experts of the other fields as well, e.g. for zoologists and ecologists.

Dr. Székely Tamás

J. R. Krebs — N. B. Davies: Bevezetés a viselkedésökológiába

Mezőgazdasági Kiadó, Budapest, 1988.

The book is the translation of J. R. Krebs and N. B. Davies: An Introduction to Behavioural Ecology. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford, 1981. The original version was not the first book on behavioural ecology, but probably the most elucidating one. The covered topics are similar to the above reviewed second edition, where the major alterations are also mentioned.

The Hungárián translation is slightly moved from the scientific textbook to a more popularized version. This is indicated by the pocket-size, the type of characters and the style of cover. Unfortuna-tely the latter one would be more suited to a community ecology textbook than to a behavioural ecology one. The boxes, the introductory remark and the photos were omitted. The lack of subject index will make it more difficult to use as reference book. The translation 's logic is not always so clear as I found in the English version. A few mistranslation of phrases could be diseovered e.g. terri­tory was translated to revier, while the competition to konkurencia, but both words are accepted with a Hungárián spelling (territórium, kompetició). Certain species are also mistranslated, e.g. spotted sandpiper (pettyes libegő cankó instead of pettyes billegetőcankó).

Ultimately the translation is a real valuable textbook inspite of the seven year time-lag, and probably it will be widely acknowledged by the Hungárián speaking students of any biological fields. I would recommend it not only for their bookshelf, but for their desktop as well. For both the ad-vanced and enthusiastic students the 2nd edition (see above) and the volume edited by the same authors can also be suggested (J. R. Krebs and N. B. Davies (eds): Behavioural Ecology: An Evolu­tionary Approach, Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford, 1984.)

Dr. Székely Tamás

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