l88 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF ANIMALS 



in fact in only one of all the different reaction pairs 

 whose behavior is summarized in these charts, was 

 there an absolute dominance of one bird by the 

 other, and then only two contact reactions were 

 seen. When all contacts throughout the whole period 

 of observation are considered, there was at least one 

 time for each of the contact pairs when the bird 

 which usually lost out dominated the contact reac- 

 tion. 



In Chart B, which shows all the reactions during 

 pre- and post-mating, and in C which records the 

 contacts for the post-mating season only, the four 

 birds represented by the diagrams were dominated 

 by three others, RY, BY and BB. It is worth empha- 

 sizing that with these birds an absolute despotism 

 was not established. Even RY, which more than any 

 other bird dominated the post-mating flock, lost con- 

 tact reactions to each of the others except to RW, 

 which was lowest of all. While it was winning 329 

 reactions it lost 58, and each of the other females, 

 RW excepted, dominated it at least three times in 

 the post-mating observations. 



The picture that emerges is one of a flock which 

 is organized into a social hierarchy, but one which 

 is not so hard and fast as that found with chickens. 

 In the long run one becomes fairly sure which bird 

 in each of the groups will dominate in the larger 



