Hi all,
?
I wish to point out that there has been no truly persuasive case made that the Barn Swallows in the set of pictures that Devorah kindly linked to--
?
?
http://scienceblogs.com/grrlscientist/2008/10/one_of_lifes_tiny_dramas.php
?
was certainly ?a case of necrophilia or the taking advantage of a dying swallow by another?and/or?that it had absolutely no component of grieving or something like it.
?
?
You don?t need to be a credentialed scientist to realize that more is needed to be known about the specific birds in the picture, and more about the sequence in question and perhaps more about Barn Swallow behavior to arrive at a certain conclusion as to actually what is going on in those pictures.? Some scientific humility is clearly called for.
?
The need to make a truly scientific case cuts both ways, not only to people proposing so-called ?anthropomorphic? interpretations of events ?but also to those who would categorically rule them out as explanations.
?
Thanks again to Devorah.
?
Ed Newbold ?ednewbold1 at yahoo.com Beacon Hill Seattle