Page:Territory in Bird Life by Henry Eliot Howard (London, John Murray edition).djvu/320

252 its young. But it would take no account of other species, and since any number might occupy the same ground, the fact of its having established a territory would not alone suffice to render its supply of food secure. Success in the attainment of reproduction would then become largely a matter of chance, depending upon the number of individuals that happened to settle in this place or in that. In the second section there would be perpetual warfare; for whereas the appropriate organic condition which leads to pairing arises in different species at different times, fresh claimants to occupied ground would constantly be appearing, and the efforts of the inhabitants to preserve their boundaries intact would have to be maintained throughout the whole period of reproduction; and while the stronger or more persistent forms would be more likely to breed, they would do so at the expense of their young, to which they would be unable to devote proper attention, and with an expenditure of energy that would reflect itself upon the future of the race. But the conditions of life in the third section would be such as would be more likely to yield good results. The relations of the different members of the community would be more evenly balanced, for a male would only be called upon to compete with those of its own size and strength. Thus, on the one hand, accommodation would be so divided as to secure the breeding of the maximum number of individuals with the minimum of expenditure of energy, whilst on the other,