THE HIGHER SOCIAL LEVELS 157 



himself to the movements of his fellows or of one 

 of them. In one specific case a mixed flock of 

 shore birds made up mainly of dowitchers and 

 blackbellied plovers included a single golden 

 plover. When the mixed flock was flushed, the 

 golden plover was found to be the fastest so that 

 it was soon in the position of a leader out in front 

 of the flock. The flock behind might wheel 

 leaving the golden plover to itself; on sensing this 

 it would turn, rise swiftly and dive forward on a 

 place of leadership again. The dowitchers, slower 

 in flight than the blackbellied plovers, usually 

 straggled along the rear and were picked up in 

 their flight as the flock wheeled since they would 

 then be flying on a shorter sector than would the 

 leaders. Often the stimulus to turn appears to 

 arise not from the foremost bird but from one of 

 the forward flanks. 



In the most primitive animals that have de- 

 veloped an organization along a head to tail axis, 

 the anterior end dominates the rest of the organ- 

 ism without the subordinate parts having much 

 influence on the dominant region. In the higher 

 mammals, particularly in man where the brain 

 is well developed and is in close nervous con- 

 nection with the other parts of the body, there is 

 some approach to a physiological democracy as 

 contrasted with the physiological autocracy of 



