28 DISPOSITION TO SECURE A TERRITORY 



normal climatic conditions which prevail in 

 many parts of Britain, these smaller resident 

 species seem to find all that they require 

 without travelling any great distance from 

 their breeding haunts. Flocks composed of 

 Yellow Buntings, Cirl Buntings, Corn-Buntings, 

 Chaffinches, Greenfinches, etc., can be observed 

 round the farmsteads or upon arable land ; small 

 flocks of Reed-Buntings take up their abode on 

 pieces of waste land and remain there until the 

 supply of food is exhausted, deserting their 

 feeding ground only towards evening when 

 they retire to the nearest reed-bed to pass the 

 night ; flocks of Hawfinches visit the same holly- 

 trees day after day so long as there is an 

 abundance of berries on the ground beneath ; 

 and so on. 



I have mentioned the Reed-Bunting ; let us 

 take it as our first example and try to follow its 

 movements when the influence exerted by the 

 internal secretions begins to be reflected on the 

 course of its behaviour. First, it will be 

 necessary to discover the exact localities in any 

 given district to which the species habitually 

 returns for the purpose of procreation ; other- 

 wise the earlier symptoms of any disposition to 

 secure a territory may quite possibly be over- 

 looked in the search for its breeding haunts. 



In open weather Reed-Buntings pass the 

 winter either singly, in twos or threes, or in 

 small flocks, on bare arable ground, upon seed 

 fields, or in the vicinity of water-courses ; but 

 in the breeding season they resort to marshy 



