Bird Display and Behaviour: An Introduction to the Study of Bird Psychology

Very Good used paperback.  Page edges slightly faded.  

Originally published in 1942, this is the revised Dover edition, published in 1965.  This work is a standard authority on bird display:  movements, postures, sounds, etc.,  which initiate specific responses from other members of the species.  Approaching his subject from a thoroughly scientific point of view, the author has combined results from the widely-scattered literature of first-hand observations, reports and studies, with his own extensive personal investigations, and has given us a highly readable, universally-acclaimed account that will be invaluable to naturalists, psychologists, birders, and many others.

The book provides nontechnical, but authoritative accounts of the ritualistic display habits of hundreds of birds from all over the world;  from penguins to birds of paradise.  Here you will read about billing ceremonies, mating rites, threat posture, ecstatic posture, communal display, display fighting, and other (often strange and fascinating) behavior.  The more than 60 photographs and 30 line drawings serve to illustrate these interesting activities.