ABSTRACT

Nick Davies' classic (1992) monograph on Dunnock Prunella modularis behavior and social evolution opens with a quote from A History of British Birds by the Reverend F. O. Morris (1856), which lauds the dunnock as "...humble and homely in its deportment and habits...", and suggests that ".. .the dunnock exhibits a pattern [of behavior] which many of a higher grade might imitate, with advantage to themselves and benefit to others through an improved example." Davies (1992) wryly notes that, given what is now known about the 'bizarre sexual behavior' and highly variable mating system of the dunnock,".. .had his congregation followed suit, there would have been chaos in the parish...", and instead concluded that the dunnock's behavior and life history were a reflection of the various outcomes of conflicts of interest among males and females. Such sexual conflict is now considered ubiquitous in sexually reproducing taxa (Arnqvist and Rowe 2005), but, despite key contributions from Trivers (1972) and Parker (1979) over 25 years ago, the study of sexual conflict has only really taken off within the last 10 years or so (Fig. 7.1).