A Natural History of Sex: The Ecology and Evolution of Mating Behavior (Paperback)

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Described by the author as a book "about the weird diversity of sexual behavior," A Natural History of Sex explores "how to look at life, how to analyze and speculate about why something is as it is and not otherwise." In a series of engaging essays, Forsyth considers a host of more specific questions, which run the gamut from the obscure and the bizarre to the familiar. Why do roosters crow and waggle their wattles? Why does it benefit the female human to remain inscrutable about her sexual cycle? Who instituted monogamy? Why would a male mite copulate with its mother? Why does the male bedbug drive its "outlandish, formidable penis" into the female's abdomen? Forsyth's highly observational mind ranges over the natural world, revealing the seemingly random patterns and consequences of animal sexual behavior. This classic reference is a must for anyone who has ever wondered just what it is that makes the world go round.

An award-winning natural-science writer, Adrian Forsyth is a senior biodiversity scientist based at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. He is also the author of The Nature of Birds, Portraits of the Rainforest, Mammals of North America: Temperate and Arctic Regions and How Monkeys Make Chocolate.