Page:Territory in Bird Life by Henry Eliot Howard (London, John Murray edition).djvu/329

Rh climatic changes and the relative abundance or scarcity of enemies have influenced the course of its evolution. These are all contributory factors operating in the external environment. But there are, besides, internal factors which form part of the inherited constitution of the bird, and, being passed on from generation to generation, afford the conditions under which migration is constantly being renewed. It is, I believe, in this field of organic change and relationship that the conditions of origin must be sought.

Just as the moth in passing from the rudimentary to the perfect condition runs through a series of changes, each one of which is marked by a typical behaviour response adjusted to meet some particular circumstance in the external environment, so the annual history of a bird displays an ordered routine, each phase of which can be observed to correspond with one of the successive changes in the environment. In almost every direction, we find that this routine is characterised, in broad outline, by great uniformity; so much so that, providing we know the history of one species, we can forecast with no small degree of certainty the general course of behaviour of other members of the family. But only the general course. There is endless variation in just the particular way in which the behaviour is adapted to meet the needs of particular species—the major details may be said to be specific, the minor details varietal.