MATE CHOICE IN THE GREY PARTRIDGE, PERDIX PERDIX - ROLE OF PHYSICAL AND BEHAVIORAL MALE TRAITS

The brown breast patch of the male grey partridge, the species' most c onspicuous sexually dimorphic trait, was totally or partly bleached ou t, to test its influence on female preference. In mate-choice experime nts, patch size (which was unaffected by early testosterone treatment) appeared to be unimportant: artificially and naturally bred females p rimarily selected males on the basis of their vocal performance. High rates of rusty-gate calls and certain features of their acoustic struc ture, usually undervalued in studies on non-oscine birds, were the mai n determinants of male success, with the morphological traits being of lesser importance.