Page:Territory in Bird Life by Henry Eliot Howard (London, John Murray edition).djvu/102

68 Nevertheless, it is true that many resident males seem to pass through a period of indecision before they establish themselves permanently in their respective territories; they come and go, their visits grow more and more prolonged, and only after the lapse of some considerable time does the process of establishment attain that degree of completeness which is represented in the initial behaviour of the migratory male. Their whole procedure seems therefore to bear the stamp of individual acquirement; and, if it stood alone, we might be content to construe it thus, but the example of the migratory male necessitates our looking elsewhere for the real meaning of the indecision.

Let me first of all give some instances of the persistence with which a male remains in one spot, and this despite the fact that it has no mate.

A Reed-Bunting occupied a central territory in a strip of marshy ground inhabited annually by four or five males of this species. Throughout April. May, and until the 19th June, it clung to its small plot of ground, tolerated no intrusion, and sang incessantly.

Two Whitethroats arrived at much the same time—the 30th April approximately—and occupied the corner of a small plantation; the one obtained a mate the day following its arrival, the other remained unpaired for a fortnight.

A Reed- Warbler established itself amongst