Page:Territory in Bird Life by Henry Eliot Howard (London, John Murray edition).djvu/348

280 matter of chance. A male in a congested district, having no incentive to seek fresh ground, would remain inactive until a female happened to cross its path and stimulate its sexual impulse, when its activity would take another form. Hence some districts would be over-populated, whilst others would remain unexplored. But the system of reproduction does not consist merely of a search for the breeding ground, and of the discharge of the sexual function; it is a much more complex business, yet withal more complete. Nothing is left to chance; the end is attained step by step; and each successive stage marks the appearance of some specific factor which contributes towards the success of the whole. We start with the appropriate organic condition under which, when adequate stimulation is provided, the disposition to secure a territory comes into functional activity. Within the field of this disposition we can distinguish certain specific impulses. In sequential order we have the impulse to seek the breeding ground; the appropriate situation which gives rise to an impulse to dwell in it; and the act of establishment which supplies the condition under which the impulse to drive away intruders is rendered susceptible to stimulation. Grouping these impulses, for the convenience of treatment, under one general heading. I speak of an impulse to seek isolation. It implies some kind of action with some kind of change as its correlated effect; and from it there flows