SECURING TERRITORY 5 



one motive — the procuring of food. And since 

 it is to the advantage of all that the indi- 

 vidual should be subordinated to the welfare 

 of the community as a whole there is no dis- 

 sension, apart from an occasional quarrel here 

 and there. 



In response, however, to some internal organic 

 change, which occurs early in the season, 

 individuality emerges as a factor in the develop- 

 ing situation, and one by one the males betake 

 themselves to secluded positions, where each 

 one, occupying a limited area, isolates itself from 

 companions. Thereafter we no longer find that 

 certain fields are tenanted by flocks of greater 

 or less dimensions, while acres of land are 

 uninhabited, but we observe that the hedgerows 

 and thickets are divided up into so many terri- 

 tories, each one of which contains its owner. 

 This procedure, with of course varying detail, 

 is typical of that of many species that breed in 

 Western Europe. And since such a radical 

 departure from the normal routine of behaviour 

 could scarcely appear generation after generation 

 in so many widely divergent forms, and still be 

 so uniform in occurrence each returning season, 

 if it were not founded upon some congenital 

 basis, it is probable that the journey, whether it 

 be the extensive one of the Warbler or the short 

 one of the Reed-Bunting, is undertaken in 

 response to some inherited disposition, and 

 probable also that the disposition bears some 

 relation to the few acres in which the bird 

 ultimately finds a resting place. Whilst for 



