An engaging book about birds, their senses and behaviour that is informed by an attractive blend of personal experience, entertaining stories and cutting-edge science.

Francis Willughby together with John Ray revolutionized the study of natural history. They were motivated by the new philosophy of the mid 1600s and transformed natural history in to a rigorous area of study. Because Ray lived longer and more of his writings have survived, his reputation subsequently eclipsed that of Willughby. Now, with access to previously unexplored archives and new discoveries we are able to provide a comprehensive evaluation of Francis Willughby's life and works. What emerges is a polymath, a true virtuoso, who made original and imaginative contributions to mathematics,...

'Birkhead has combined ingenuity and perseverance to produce an evocative portrait of a great pioneer in the scientific study of birds' Literary Review Francis Willughby lived and thrived in the midst of the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century. Along with his Cambridge tutor John Ray, Willughby was determined to overhaul the whole of natural history and impose order on its complexity. It was exhilarating, exacting and exhausting work. Yet before Willughby and Ray could complete their monumental encyclopaedia of birds, Ornithology, Willughby died. In the centuries since, Ray's...

V této výjimečné knize čerpá Tim Birkhead - přední světový ornitolog, profesor na univerzitě v Sheffieldu a autor úspěšných knih ověnčených řadou cen - ze svých bohatých vědomostí, které získal celoživotním studiem ptáků, a poutavě přibližuje, jak ptáci vnímají svět. Snaží se odpovědět jak na tyto otázky, tak i na mnoho dalších a využívá při tom popis jednotlivých smyslů, které ptákům slouží k poznávání okolí a ke vzájemné komunikaci.

Jaké to je být rorýsem létajícím rychlostí vyšší než sto kilometrů v...