178 



THE SOCIAL LIFE OF ANIMALS 



rectly on the top of its head; it walked backward 

 two or three feet, staggered and fell, arose and again 

 walked backward in a blind course that took it into 

 the bird that had given the original peck. By that 



Fig. 39. Flocks of hens are organized into a definite 

 social hierarchy. 



time the aggressor had turned to eating and paid no 

 attention to this chance contact. 



As a result of patient watching of pecks received 

 and delivered, it is possible to find, with a high de- 

 gree of accuracy, the social status of birds in a rela- 

 tively small flock. (80) The organization of one such 

 flock of brown leghorn pullets is shown in Figure 39. 

 This peck-order was determined after sixty days of 

 observation. As shown by the chart, there was a 

 regular line organization down to the eighth bird. 



