It has been argued by Perrins (1970) that laying a large clutch imposes a considerable extra load on the food-gathering abilities of a small bird. From this, he suggested that the date at which individual birds in a population begin laying is related to the food supply at the start of the breeding season: egg-laying cannot begin until food has become sufficiently abundant for each female to find e
...This article is only available to registered users.
To read more, please log in or purchase a subscription.
