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This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This
IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced
typographical errors, and jumbled words. This book may have
occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor
pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original
artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe
this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections,
have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing
commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We
appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the
preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.
The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly
growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by
advances in the printing press. In its determination to preserve
the century of revolution, Gale initiated a revolution of its own:
digitization of epic proportions to preserve these invaluable works
in the largest archive of its kind. Now for the first time these
high-quality digital copies of original 18th century manuscripts
are available in print, making them highly accessible to libraries,
undergraduate students, and independent scholars.Western literary
study flows out of eighteenth-century works by Alexander Pope,
Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding, Frances Burney, Denis Diderot, Johann
Gottfried Herder, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and others.
Experience the birth of the modern novel, or compare the
development of language using dictionaries and grammar discourses.
++++The below data was compiled from various identification fields
in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as
an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification:
++++British LibraryT060020John Piper = John Alcock.Birmingham:
printed for the author, and sold by him at Lichfield; Mr. Ross,
London; T. Aris, Birmingham, 1760. lviii, 10],352p.; 12
With canny insight and bone-dry wit, John Alcock, a specialist in
the ecology of the American Southwest, introduces us to the lives
and loves of desert insects as they forage through his backyard
oasis. Creating his own desert garden behind his suburban home in
Tempe, Arizona, Alcock scrutinizes every square inch of soil
detailing the exotic plant life he finds and offering tips on its
peccadilloes and preservation. The true heroes of this story,
however, are the bugs of Alcock's backyard. We are drawn into
complex plots almost biblical in nature of life and love, survival
and death. Two male earwigs caught in each other's pincers battle
for a prized female. A female mantis finishes copulating, beheads
her mate, and cannibalizes his body for its precious protein. With
each detail, Alcock pieces together the entire ecosystem of his
desert paradise. Always amusing and instructive, and sometimes
dramatic, In a Desert Garden provides an eye-opening meditation on
the joys of planting, weeding, pruning, and, most of all,
bug-hunting.
This anthology contains 37 articles published since 1974 in
American Scientist, the journal of the scientific society Sigma Xi.
The richly illustrated articles provide a picture of how
behaviourists think about and conduct their research, as well as
insights into the behaviour of selected vertebrate and invertebrate
species.
In this straight-forward, objective approach to the sociobiology debate, noted animal behaviorist John Alcock illuminates how sociobiologists study behavior in all species. He confronts the chief scientific and ideological objections head on, with a compelling analysis of case histories that involve such topics as sexual jealousy, beauty, gender difference, parent-offspring relations, and rape. In so doing, he shows that sociobiology provides the most satisfactory evolutionary analysis of social behavior today.
Swallowtail butterflies frolic on the wind. Vireos and rock wrens
sing their hearts out by the recovering creek. Spiders and other
predators chase their next meal. Through it all, John Alcock
observes, records, and delights in what he sees. In a once-burnt
area, life resurges. Plants whose seeds and roots withstood an
intense fire become habitat for the returning creatures of the
wild. After the Wildfire describes the remarkable recovery of
wildlife in the Mazatzal Mountains in central Arizona. It is the
rare observer who has the dedication to revisit the site of a
wildfire, especially over many years and seasons. But naturalist
John Alcock returned again and again to the Mazatzals, where the
disastrous Willow fire of 2004 burned 187 square miles. Documenting
the fire's aftermath over a decade, Alcock thrills at the renewal
of the once-blackened region. Walking the South Fork of Deer Creek
in all seasons as the years passed, he was rewarded by the sight of
exuberant plant life that in turn fostered an equally satisfying
return of animals ranging from small insects to large mammals.
Alcock clearly explains the response of chaparral plants to fire
and the creatures that reinhabit these plants as they come back
from a ferocious blaze: the great spreadwing damselfly, the western
meadowlark, the elk, and birds and bugs of rich and colorful
varieties. This book is at once a journey of biological discovery
and a celebration of the ability of living things to reoccupy a
devastated location. Alcock encourages others to engage the natural
world-even one that has burnt to the ground.
When John Alcock replaced the Bermuda grass in his suburban Arizona
lawn with gravel, cacti, and fairy dusters, he was doing more than
creating desert landscaping. He seeded his property with flowers to
entice certain insects and even added a few cowpies to attract
termites, creating a personal laboratory for ecological studies.
His observations of life in his own front yard provided him with
the fieldnotes for this unusual book. "In a Desert Garden" draws
readers into the strange and fascinating world of plants and
animals native to Arizona's Sonoran Desert. As Alcock studies the
plants in his yard, he shares thoughts on planting, weeding, and
pruning that any gardener will appreciate. And when commenting on
the mating rituals of spiders and beetles or marveling at the
camouflage of grasshoppers and caterpillars, he uses humor and
insight to detail the lives of the insects that live in his patch
of desert. Celebrating the virtues of even aphids and mosquitoes,
Alcock draws the reader into the intricacies of desert life to
reveal the complex interactions found in this unique ecosystem. "In
a Desert Garden" combines meticulous science with contemplations of
nature and reminds us that a world of wonder lies just outside our
own doors.
"Spring on the Sonoran Desert can be a four-month-long spectacle of
life and color. Within these well-written pages, Alcock exposes us
to the plant and animal life of a land many regard as desolate. To
Alcock, the desert has a constant evolutionary beauty he never
seems to tire of. Alcock's approach to his subject is an elegant
combination of science and literature. Only the desert itself,
arrayed in its April apparel, can rival the beauty of this book."
--"Arizona Highways"
"Deserts are not as bereft of life as they seem; their barren
landscapes can support a remarkable variety of plant and animal
life, though it may require a patient and skilled naturalist to
reveal its mysteries. John Alcock is just such a naturalist. . . .
Alcock provides delightful insights into how insects provision
their developing young, how parasites find their victims and how
flowers attract pollinators. A book of this kind allows its author,
more accustomed to the rigours and constraints of writing academic
papers and books, to relate revealing anecdotes and simply to
express their fascinating for natural history. . . . Books such as
this serve a vital function in bringing the mysteries of the desert
to the attention of a wider public." --"Times Literary Supplement"
In The Triumph of Sociobiology, John Alcock reviews the controversy that has surrounded evolutionary studies of human social behavior following the 1975 publication of E.O. Wilson's classic, Sociobiology, The New Synthesis. Denounced vehemently as an "ideology" that has justified social evils and inequalities, sociobiology has survived the assault. Twenty-five years after the field was named by Wilson, the approach he championed has successfully demonstrated its value in the study of animal behavior, including the behavior of our own species. Yet, misconceptions remain--to our disadvantage. In this straight-forward, objective approach to the sociobiology debate, noted animal behaviorist John Alcock illuminates how sociobiologists study behavior in all species. He confronts the chief scientific and ideological objections head on, with a compelling analysis of case histories that involve such topics as sexual jealousy, beauty, gender difference, parent-offspring relations, and rape. In so doing, he shows that sociobiology provides the most satisfactory scientific analysis of social behavior available today. Alcock challenges the notion that sociobiology depends on genetic determinism while showing the shortcoming of competing approaches that rely on cultural or environmental determinism. He also presents the practical applications of sociobiology and the progress sociobiological research has made in the search for a more complete understanding of human activities. His reminder that "natural" behavior is not "moral" behavior should quiet opponents fearing misapplication of evolutionary theory to our species. The key misconceptions about this evolutionary field are dissected one by one as the author shows why sociobiologists have had so much success in explaining the puzzling and fascinating social behavior of nonhuman animals and humans alike.
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