Page:Territory in Bird Life by Henry Eliot Howard (London, John Murray edition).djvu/189

Rh occasion. The question therefore arises as to whether the emotional outburst which we are attributing to the arrival of a female may not after all be due to the presence of an intruding male. It may be so. But although I can recall no single instance in which the presence of an intruder could be definitely excluded, yet I should hesitate to base upon this any broad generalisation.

When the normal course of the song is not interrupted by the arrival of a female, when, that is to say, the male still pursues the routine to which he has all along been accustomed, and still sings at stated intervals in stated places with a voice that betrays no heightened emotional tone, even though the song may convey some meaning to the delicate perceptual powers of the female, we have nothing to lay hold upon which can be construed as an indication of direct relationship between the song and the presence of the female.

The partial or complete suspension of the song after pairing has taken place is the most interesting, as it is the most noticeable, feature. Not that it is by any means universal—if it were so, some of the difficulties that beset the path of interpretation would be removed, but it is sufficiently widespread to demand explanation. In nearly every case it is, however, only temporary, the period during which the male is silent varying from a few days to a few weeks. The male Grasshopper-Warbler, when it first reaches us, sings persistently, but