Page:Territory in Bird Life by Henry Eliot Howard (London, John Murray edition).djvu/113

Rh the female is often a spectator and seems even to pair with the victor. I accepted it, therefore, as the most reasonable interpretation of the facts. But, as time passed by, incidents of a conflicting character led me to think that after all there might be another solution of the problem. And when it was no longer possible to doubt that there was a widespread tendency to establish territories, it at once became manifest that the battles might have an important part to play in the whole scheme. But how was this to be proved? What sort of evidence could show whether the proximate end for which the males were fighting had reference to the female or to the territory? Clearly nothing but a complete record of the whole series of events leading up to reproduction could supply the necessary data upon which a decision might rest. In the present chapter I shall give, in the first place, the reasons which lead me to think that the origin of "the fighting cannot be traced to the female; afterwards, the evidence which seems to show that it must be sought in the territory; and finally. I shall make a suggestion as to the part the female may play in the whole scheme.

The facts upon which the "law of battle" was founded were ample to establish the truth of its main doctrine. But the evidence upon which the interpretation of the battles was based was somewhat superficial. It was based mainly upon the general observation that one or more females could frequently be observed to accompany the combatants; and if this were the sole condition