Let us take another example from the larger migrants--the Black-tailed
Godwit, a bird common enough in the Dutch marshes but no longer breeding
in this country. On suitable stretches of marsh land, numbers will be
found in proximity one to another after the manner of the Lapwing, each
male occupying a definite space of ground wherein it passes the time
preening, searching for food, or in sleep--though at the same time
keeping a strict watch over its territory. Now the preference shown for
a particular piece of ground, and the determination with which it is
resorted to, is the more remarkable when we take into consideration the
specific emotional behaviour arising from the seasonal sexual condition.
This behaviour is expressed in a peculiar flight. The bird rises high in
the air, circles round with slowly beating wings above the marsh, and
utters a call which, as far as my experience goes, is characteristic of
the performance. The air is often full of individuals circling thus
even beyond the confines of the marsh, for a male does not limit its
flight to a space immediately above its territory; but nevertheless
careful observation will show how unerringly each one returns to its own
position on the breeding ground, no matter how extensive the aerial
excursion may have been. And so, when the males of the smaller migrants
confine their movements to an acre of ground at the completion of their
long journey, they are acting no more under the influence of fatigue
than the Cuckoo, which keeps within certain bounds yet flies about
briskly, or the Godwit which, though holding to its few square yards on
the ground, executes most tiring and extensive flights above the marsh.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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