David Lack, FRS (1910–1973) has been called Britain's most influential ornithologist. Amongst other achievements he developed what is now known as Lack's Principle which explained the evolution of avian clutch sizes in terms of individual selection as opposed to the competing contemporary idea that they had evolved for the benefit of species (also known as group selection); this has been considered a major development in Darwinian evolution His pioneering life-history studies of the living bird helped in changing the nature of ornithology from what was then a collection-oriented field. He was a longtime director of the Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology at the University of Oxford.

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• Introduction xiiiPreface 1Preface to fourth edition 4Note to this edition 71 My Robins 92 Song 233 The Red Breast 364 Fighting 475 The formation of pairs 596 Courtship 717 Nest, eggs, and young 818 Migration 1039 Age 11910 Food, feeding, and being fed upon 13111 The significance of territory 14212 Adventures with a stuffed robin 15813 Recognition 17014 Tameness 18115 A digression upon instinct 19116 Forest robins 202Epilogue 220Postscript 1: in David lack’s footsteps,by David Harper 223Postscript 2: The life of ‘the life of the robin’,by Peter Lack 235References and notes 249Index 277