Re: gender differences

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Gil Hardwick <gil@landmark.iinet.net.au> wrote:
>
>In article <3nmvmq$kk7@amy7.Stanford.EDU>, Joan Lorrine McCollom
>(joanie@leland.Stanford.EDU) writes:

>>As a matter of fact, whenever I watch animal documentaries on public
>>television, I constantly see this going on. I've actually heard a duck
>>referred to as a "single mother."
>
>Goodness, I wonder at times that the biologists haven't turned to
>calling our children "joeys" . . .

Um, aren't you confusing TeeVee nature shows designed to keep an
easily distracted public's interest with the science of biology? I've
never heard an ethologist or sociobiologist refer to a female duck as a
"single mother." Mallards are notorious rapists, after all. "Single
mother" describes most mamma ducks, and is therefore redundant. Biologists
prefer to be parsimonious. ;-)

Bryant

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