Page:Territory in Bird Life by Henry Eliot Howard (London, John Murray edition).djvu/256

198 and on Horn Head; and beyond this, to the east, there are none, not even on the old rocks that form the promontory of. Why, we ask, do countless numbers crowd the ledges of Horn Head, whilst they are absent from the precipices of ; why, too, are they absent from the granite cliffs of ? The reason is not far to seek. Either the face of the cliff is made up of a series of broken precipices, or the face of the precipices is too smooth, or the otherwise suitable ledges are situated too near the water, or the water recedes from the base of the cliff at low tide. Many miles of rock-bound coast are thus useless for the purpose of reproduction.

Now when we bear in mind how large an expanse of coast is formed of blown sand or of rocks of low altitude, and how many miles of cliff fail to supply the three essential conditions that we have been considering, we can see that suitable breeding stations must be limited both in number and extent. From a wide expanse of ocean hosts of individuals are therefore obliged to converge at certain definite points; and hence, each recurring season, there must arise a competition for positions at the station, just as there is competition between individual Buntings for positions in the marsh. And the ability to obtain a position upon a suitable ledge involves, in the first place, an impulse to search for it; in the second place, an impulse to dwell in it; and in the third place, an impulse to resist intrusion