David Lack Quotes

David Lack Quotes

David Lambert Lack FRS was a British evolutionary biologist who made contributions to ornithology, ecology, and ethology. His 1947 book, Darwin's Finches, on the finches of the Galapagos Islands was a landmark work as were his other popular science books on Life of the Robin and Swifts in a Tower. 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 . 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. Wikipedia

✵ 16. July 1910 – 12. March 1973

David Lack: 2 quotes 0 likes

“... many large insects come out at dusk. By doing so they escape many enemies, but not all, since here the nightjar tribe takes over, many of which are larger than the largest swifts.”

David Lack

Source: Swifts in a Tower (1956), p. 108, 2nd edition, 1973