194 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF ANIMALS 



In general these canaries show more pecking 

 among the males than among the females, and dur- 

 ing the nesting period the female does little to de- 

 fend the nest territory; that is the work of her mate. 

 In this home territory the social dominance of the 

 male over his fellow males is not steady but varies 

 with different phases of the breeding cycle. During 

 the processes of nest-building, egg-laying and incu- 

 bation, the male tends to become more dominant. 

 This is shown by an increase in the size of the ter- 

 ritory about the nest which he dominates, and by 

 the fact that when on neutral territory he tends to 

 win more of his pair contacts. During the rest of 

 the cycle the male tends to lose dominance as meas- 

 ured by both these criteria. 



It is worth noting that in the course of these pul- 

 sations in dominance the male may not actually 

 move up in the social scale as determined by the 

 number of birds which he fully dominates. He may 

 win more of his individual pair contacts without 

 actually oversetting the usual trend. The same bird 

 may show fluctuations in dominance during the day. 

 Thus one male regularly dominated less territory of 

 an evening than he did in the morning. This may 

 well be a matter of stamina. 



In some cases the relation between the sexes in 

 these canaries hinges on another complication. For 



