Page:Territory in Bird Life by Henry Eliot Howard (London, John Murray edition).djvu/220

162 gation, we can infer that if a male had no certain means of advertising its position, the territory would not be brought into useful relation in its life. Have we here sufficient ground on which to construct a theory of origin; in other words, has the evolution of song been incidental to, and contributory to, the evolution of the territory?

We have all along spoken of the song and of the call-notes as if they were manifestations of separate emotional states having their respective and well-defined spheres of usefulness; and while, speaking generally, this is a true statement of the case, there is much evidence to show that the relationship between them is nevertheless very close. There are, for example, quite a number of cases in which a particular call-note is uttered with unusual energy during sexual emotion, and is attached to the song, of which it may be said to form a part; but a still closer connection can be traced in many simple melodies which are merely compositions of social and family calls repeated many times in succession, and even in some of the more complex productions there will be found indications of a similar construction. And since this is so, since moreover, in the seasonal vocal development of such a bird as the Yellow Bunting, we can observe the gradual elaboration from simple to complex—from the repetition of single notes to phrases and from phrases to the complete melody—we have every reason to suppose that