It would seem, then, from this that the fighting must bear some relation
to the particular area of ground in which it occurs; and unless it can
be shown that there is some other factor in the external environment of
the male, that is the direction in which we must look for the condition
under which the instinct is rendered susceptible. One's thoughts turn,
of course, to the female, but she too passes backwards and forwards
between the territories and the neutral ground, and if her presence were
really a _conditio sine qua non_ of the strife, one would like to know
why, when she leaves those territories and joins the flock and the males
do likewise, similar conflicts should not prevail there also.
Other species have their neutral ground, but the environment seldom
affords such facilities for observation as does that of the Lapwing.
Even though the Moor-Hens, who are so conspicuously intolerant upon the
pool, _do_ feed together amicably upon the meadows adjoining; and the
Chaffinch that is so pugnacious in the morning, _does_ seek out the
flock later in the day; yet their conditions of existence prevent our
obtaining a panoramic view of the whole proceeding, and we have to study
each scene separately before discovering that the relationship between
intolerance and the territory on the one hand, and friendship and the
neutral ground on the other, is just as strong a feature as it is in the
behaviour of the Lapwing.
I shall now give a brief account of the conduct of a male Reed-Bunting
which by persistent effort established itself late in the season, and I
shall do so because its behaviour tends to confirm much that has been
said in the preceding pages.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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