Page:Territory in Bird Life by Henry Eliot Howard (London, John Murray edition).djvu/150

100 the charge—and the sound of beating wings and the feathers that float in the air are tokens of earnestness. Such scenes are of frequent occurrence; but the conflicts vary in intensity, and the circumstances under which they occur vary too, and females come and go without leaving any clue as to their ultimate intentions.

Turning now to the flock one is impressed with the friendship that seems to exist between the various members. There are, it is true, occasional displays of pugnacity which never seem to develop into anything very serious; for instance, one bird will fly at another, and a momentary scuffle is followed by a short pursuit but nothing more—nothing, that is to say, in the least comparable with the battle previously described. Of what is the flock composed? Of members of both sexes. There is no difficulty in assuring oneself that this is so. But is it entirely composed of individuals in whom development has not reached a stage adequate for the functioning of the primary dispositions? No, not entirely; for it will be observed that its number is a fluctuating one, that birds come and go, and, if a close watch is kept upon the different individuals as they leave, it will be noticed that some at least are inmates of the territories at the opposite end of the meadow—the solitary members whose behaviour we were recently watching. This fact is an important one. We were impressed, it may be remembered, with the contrast between the general behaviour of the birds at the opposite ends of the meadow.