Abstract
An assumption of the Hamilton-Zuk model for the evolution of secondary sexual characters is that variation in the expression of these traits among conspecific individuals is a reliable indicator of their parasitic burden. Thus, if host-parasite coevolutionary processes are driving the evolution of sexual characters in a species, one expects to find a negative relationship between the exaggeration of sexual ornaments in a population of males and parasite prevalence or incidence. I analyzed hemoparasites in 97 breeding redpoll finches (Aves; Carduelinae; Carduelis f. flammea) caught at Churchill, Manitoba, in this context. Redpolls are small boreal passerines that show strong age and sexual dichromatism
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