Burley N
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1977 Aug;74(8):3476-9. doi: 10.1073/pnas.74.8.3476.
Current theory in sexual selection is extended to predict within-sex variability with regard to selectivity towards mates in different mating systems. Generally, the sex that invests more in the care of each offspring should be more selective of mates than the sex investing less. Within each sex, individuals of low male quality should be less selective than individuals of high quality, but there should be less variation in selectivity among individuals of the sex investing more. When only one sex contributes parental care, however, individuals of that sex should be uniformly selective, while the other sex is expected to mate indiscriminately. Using feral pigeons (Columba livia), these hypotheses are tested for the case in which both sexes contribute substantial parental care, but in which females contribute more than males. As predicted, females were found to be more selective of mates than males were. On certain criteria, males of lower quality were less selective of mates than males of higher quality.
性选择的当前理论得到扩展，以预测在不同交配系统中，两性在对配偶的选择上的性别内变异性。一般来说，在照顾每个后代方面投入更多的性别应该比投入较少的性别对配偶更具选择性。在每个性别内部，雄性质量低的个体应该比高质量的个体选择性更低，但在投入更多的性别中，个体之间的选择性差异应该更小。然而，当只有一个性别提供亲代抚育时，该性别的个体应该具有一致的选择性，而另一个性别则预计会不加选择地交配。利用野生家鸽（Columba livia），对两性都提供大量亲代抚育但雌性比雄性投入更多的情况进行了这些假设的检验。正如预测的那样，发现雌性比雄性对配偶更具选择性。在某些标准上，质量较低的雄性比质量较高的雄性对配偶的选择性更低。
