Marked-up Birds become Sexier

I was intrigued by this story in USA Today earlier this week and Chas beat me to getting a post up about it.

"Using a $5.99 marker, scientists darkened the rust-colored breast feathers of male New Jersey barn swallows, turning lighter birds to the level of those naturally darkest.

They had already found, in a test three years ago, that the marked-up males were more attractive to females and mated more often.

This time they found out that the more attractive appearance, at least in the bird world, triggered changes to the animals' body chemistry, increasing testosterone."

So in this case clothes do make the man. Make sure you read Chas' take on this.