GROUP ORGANIZATION l8l 



restricted to the time near feeding, when the birds 

 were most likely to fight. Taken together with the 

 greater number of triangles, the reversals indicate a 

 less stable social order among these male birds than 

 among their sisters. 



For a time there was no completely dominant bird 

 among the cockerels. BW, which stood highest in 

 general, was pecked by BR, which ranked otherwise 

 just below him. One day BR and Y started to fight, 

 as they had done many times before, with BR win- 

 ning. This time Y struck through to the eye, which 

 closed as a result, and BR retreated. The injury was 

 such that the tender-hearted observer thought that 

 BR needed special treatment, and removed him to 

 a hospital pen. The eye healed, and two weeks later 

 the recovered bird was returned to the flock which 

 he had almost dominated. In these two weeks of 

 absence he had lost his social status entirely, and 

 was pecked even by W, which had not been seen 

 before to peck a fellow cockerel. The reason for his 

 loss of position is not clear. He had been severely 

 injured, he had lost a fight to an inferior, and he 

 had been absent from the flock for fourteen days. 

 For one or all of these reasons he had lost caste so 

 completely that five days later he had to be removed 

 from the flock, literally to save his life. 



During the five days that BR was again with the 



