ISOLATION OF THE MALE 61 



male was in its territory it avoided companions 

 and was openly hostile to intruders ; when it 

 was with the flock it wandered about with 

 companions in search of food. The contrast 

 between the two modes of behaviour was very 

 marked, and it was evident that the gregarious 

 instinct was gradually yielding its position of 

 importance to the new factor — the territory. 

 If there had been no flock, if a few solitary 

 individuals had appeared here and there and 

 had established themselves in different parts of 

 the meadow, one would have had no definite 

 evidence of the strength of the impulse in the 

 male to seek a position of its own, one could 

 only have argued from the general fact of males 

 flocking in the winter and isolating themselves 

 in spring that something more than accident 

 was required to explain so radical a change. 

 But since the birds returned in a flock to the 

 ground upon which they intended to breed, and 

 since the flock occupied temporarily part of 

 the ground whilst the partitioning of the 

 remainder was still proceeding, it was possible 

 to gauge the strength of the impulse, which was 

 forcing the males to isolate themselves in 

 particular areas of ground, by comparing it 

 with the impulse to accompany the flock — and 

 the measure of its intensity was the rapidity 

 with which the latter impulse yielded its position 

 of importance. 



Like the Lapwing, the Coot and Moor-Hen 

 are easily kept under observation, and since 

 many individuals often breed in proximity, 



