Variation in the Structure of Bird Nests between Northern Manitoba and Southeastern Ontario

Traits that converge in appearance under similar environmental conditions among phylogenetically independent lineages are thought to represent adaptations to local environments. We tested for convergence in nest morphology and composition of birds breeding in two ecologically different locations in Canada: Churchill in northern Manitoba and Elgin in southeastern Ontario. We examined nests from four families of passerine birds (Turdidae: Turdus, Parulidae: Dendroica, Emberizidae: Passerculus and Fringillidae: Carduelis) where closely related populations or species breed in both locations. Nests of American Robins, Yellow Warblers, and Carduelis finches had heavier nest masses, and tended to have thicker nest-walls, in northern Manitoba compared with conspecifics or congenerics breeding in southeastern Ontario. Together, all species showed evidence for wider internal and external nest-cup diameters in northern Manitoba, while individual species showed varying patterns for internal nest-cup and external nest depths. American Robins, Yellow Warblers, and Carduelis finches in northern Manitoba achieved heavier nest masses in different ways. American Robins increased all materials in similar proportions, and Yellow Warblers and Common Redpolls used greater amounts of select materials. While changes in nest composition vary uniquely for each species, the pattern of larger nests in northern Manitoba compared to southeastern Ontario in three of our four phylogenetically-independent comparisons suggests that birds are adapting to similar selective pressures between locations

Polyclonal activation of the murine immune system by an antibody to IgD. IV. In vivo activation of B lymphocytes from immune defective CBA/N mice.

Abstract Previous studies with BALB/c mice have established that the injection of a goat antibody to IgD (GaM delta) induces splenic B lymphocytes to undergo T-independent, polyclonal increases in cell surface (s) Ia expression, size, and DNA synthesis 1 day after injection, as well as T-dependent maintenance of this activation and differentiation into sIgG1+ cells and IgG1-secreting cells 6 to 7 days after injection. Because B lymphocytes from mice homozygous or hemizygous for the CBA/N X-linked immune defect fail to proliferate in vitro when cultured with soluble anti-Ig antibodies, yet can make in vivo primary antibody responses to T-dependent antigens, we studied the effects of injecting (CBA/N X DBA/2)F1 male mice (immune defective) and (CBA/N X DBA/2)F1 female mice (phenotypically normal) with 800 to 1600 micrograms of GaM delta. B cells from immune defective mice demonstrated definite but distinctly subnormal increases in B cell size, DNA synthesis, and sIa expression 1 to 5 days after GaM delta injection, but by day 7 showed increases in these parameters as well as in the percentages of splenic sIgG1+ cells and IgM-secreting cells that were similar to those exhibited by the immunologically normal mice. However, IgG1 secretion by the immune defective mice was at this time only one-fourth to one-half as great as that observed with normal mice. Our data raises the possibility that the differentiation of B cells into IgG1-secreting cells may be more dependent upon the GaM delta-induced activation steps that are defective in CBA/N mice than is the differentiation of B cells into IgM-secreting cells or into sIgG1 cells.</jats:p