Riebel K, Slater PJ
School of Environmental and Evolutionary Biology, University of St Andrews
Anim Behav. 1999 Mar;57(3):655-661. doi: 10.1006/anbe.1998.0984.
The song of many bird species is relatively constant in form, yet each bird has more than one song type, making it an excellent model for studies of the mechanisms underlying switching between behaviour patterns. The chaffinch is a good example. Males sing with eventual variety, repeating each song type in the repertoire a few times before switching to another type. The mechanism triggering these switches is not known. We investigated long continuous recordings of spontaneous singing by six wild males to test two hypotheses: (1) that a maximum number of repetitions limits bout length; or (2) that a switch occurs after a song type bout reaches a maximum duration ('time window'). Strong evidence was found for a temporal limitation: song type bouts with many repetitions were delivered only at a fast rate, whereas bouts consisting of few songs were delivered either fast or slow. Copyright 1999 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.
许多鸟类的歌声在形式上相对固定，但每只鸟都有不止一种歌声类型，这使其成为研究行为模式转换背后机制的绝佳模型。苍头燕雀就是一个很好的例子。雄性苍头燕雀的歌声最终呈现出多样性，在曲目库中的每种歌声类型重复几次后再切换到另一种类型。触发这些切换的机制尚不清楚。我们研究了六只野生雄性苍头燕雀自发歌唱的长时间连续录音，以检验两个假设：（1）重复次数的最大值限制了歌唱时段的长度；或者（2）在一种歌声类型的歌唱时段达到最长持续时间（“时间窗口”）后会发生切换。我们发现了有力的证据支持时间限制：重复次数多的歌声类型歌唱时段只能以较快的速度发出，而由较少歌曲组成的歌唱时段则可以快速或慢速发出。版权所有1999年动物行为研究协会。
