This lecture was intended to give an idea of causal ethological methods used to analyse the functional organisation of the causal machinery underly ing the behaviour of an animal. This approach is sketched on the basis of a special case: a study of the causal factors involved in the occurrence of different behaviour patterns in a herring gull incubating its eggs. It is shown how the concept of a functional organisation underlying behaviour makes it possible to interprete: 1. the apparently irrelevant occurrence of behaviour (re-settling, nest building, preening) interrupting the principal,...
This lecture was intended to give an idea of causal ethological methods used to analyse the functional organisation of the causal machinery underly in...
