ABSENCE OP THE FEMALE 83 



she certainly is not easily overlooked, for her 

 note is unmistakable even when the behaviour of 

 the male does not betray her arrival. 



That the actual presence of the respective 

 females exercised any influence on the course of 

 these struggles is more than doubtful. Not only 

 did one fail to detect them, but one's failure to 

 do so was confirmed by the knowledge that they 

 had not yet arrived in those particular localities. 

 Hence the fact of the male preceding the female 

 is a valuable aid to the interpretation of subse- 

 quent behaviour ; and one appreciates it the 

 more after having experienced the difficulty of 

 deciding whether she is present during the 

 conflicts between resident males, for no matter 

 how carefully we may observe the conditions 

 which lead up to, and which accompany, such 

 conflicts, or how closely we may scrutinise the 

 surrounding trees, undergrowth, or ground, there 

 always remains the possibility that she may, 

 after all, have been overlooked. But this must 

 not be taken to imply that in such cases direct 

 observation alone can lead to no serviceable 

 result, or that the evidence gained therefrom is 

 worthless. Far from it. Failure to detect a 

 female is so very common an occurrence that, 

 even if we lacked the corroborative evidence 

 supplied in the life of the migratory male, it 

 would still be unreasonable to suppose that it 

 were solely due to mistaken observation. We 

 mark her absence during the conflicts between 

 the respective males of many common species — 

 the Finches, Buntings, and Thrushes that occupy 



G 



