MALES ARRIVE BEFORE FEMALES 41 



building its nest, and of rearing its young ante- 

 cedent to experience — racial preparation has 

 fitted it thus far ; why then exclude the other 

 event in the series, the earlier departure of the 

 male, from hereditary equipment ? If the 

 journey were a casual affair without any goal 

 attaching to it, if the males upon arrival 

 wandered about in search of a mate, there would 

 be some ground for thinking that a vague 

 recollection of the whole former experience was 

 sufficient to explain the hurried return ; but 

 since the pleasurable effect of association, 

 founded upon previous experience of a definite 

 place, cannot well be established, and since it is 

 so difficult to study the objective aspect of the 

 behaviour in question without coming to the 

 conclusion that the journey is related to the 

 appropriation of a place suitable for the rearing 

 of offspring, one is tempted to ask whether the 

 hurried return may not also be so related. 



Now the males of some of the migratory 

 species, especially of those which are accus- 

 tomed to return to their breeding haunts early 

 in the season, are called upon to face greater 

 dangers and have a greater strain imposed 

 upon their strength by starting forth upon their 

 journey ten days or a fortnight before their 

 prospective mates. The blizzards which so often 

 sweep across the northern parts of Europe in 

 the latter half of March, destroying in their 

 course the all too scanty supply of insect life, 

 may take toll of their numbers ; or the westerly 

 gales, which are not infrequent at that period, 



