92 DISPOSITION TO DEFEND THE TERRITORY 



air, and sometimes even on the ground, and 

 fighting thus they gradually approach and 

 pass beyond the limits of the territory. Where- 

 upon a change comes over the scene ; the male 

 whose territory was intruded upon and who all 

 along had displayed such animosity, betrays 

 no further interest in the conflict — it ceases to 

 attack, searches around for food, or sings, and 

 slowly makes its way back towards the centre 

 of the territory. 



Scenes of this kind are of almost daily 

 occurrence wherever a species is so common, 

 or the environment to which it is adapted so 

 hmited in extent, that males are obliged to 

 occupy adjacent ground. The Moor- Hen abounds 

 on all suitable sheets of water, and it is a bird 

 that can be conveniently studied because, as 

 a rule, there is nothing, except the rushes that 

 fringe the pool, to hinder us from obtaining a 

 panoramic view of the whole proceedings, and 

 moreover the area occupied by each individual 

 is comparatively small. Towards the middle of 

 February, symptoms of sexual organic change 

 make themselves apparent, and the pool is then 

 no longer the resort of a peaceable community ; 

 quarrels become frequent, and as different 

 portions of the surface of the water are gradu- 

 ally appropriated, so the fighting becomes more 

 incessant and more severe. Each individual 

 has its own particular territory, embracing a 

 piece of open water as well as a part of the rush- 

 covered fringe, within which it moves and lives. 

 But in the early part of the season, when the 



