Page:Territory in Bird Life by Henry Eliot Howard (London, John Murray edition).djvu/201

Rh through which the sexes are brought into contact.

Well now, we come back to the question, why, if all species have a serviceable recognition call, that call should not be sufficient for the purpose, just as, without a doubt, it is adequate for all purposes at other seasons? The answer is. I think, clear. The recognition call is not confined to one sex, nor only to breeding birds; it is the common property of all the individuals of the species, and if the female were to rely upon it as a guide she might at one moment pursue another female, at another a nonbreeding male; she might even be guided to a paired female or to a paired male, and time would be wasted and much confusion arise. So that no matter how much a male might advertise himself by cries and calls which were common alike to all the individuals of the species, it would not assist the biological end which we have in view. Something else is therefore required to meet the peculiar circumstances, some special sound bearing a definite meaning by which the female can recognise, amongst the host of individuals of no consequence to her, just those particular males in a position to breed and ready to receive mates. Hence the vocal powers, the power of producing sounds instrumentally, and the power of flight, have been organised to subserve the biological end of "recognition."

And this view is strengthened, it seems to me, by the erratic behaviour of certain species,