74 DISPOSITION TO DEFEND THE TERRITORY 



humanly speaking, we should term its emotional 

 nature, so that the bird becomes openly hostile 

 towards other males with whom previously it 

 had lived on amicable terms. 



The seasonal organic condition is responsible 

 for the functioning of the disposition which 

 results in this intolerance, just as it is for 

 the functioning of the disposition which leads 

 to the establishment of the territory ; and the 

 effect of these two dispositions is that a space of 

 ground is not only occupied but made secure 

 from intrusion. The process is a simple one. 

 There is no reason to believe, there is no 

 necessity to believe, that any part of the pro- 

 cedure is conditioned by anticipatory meaning ; 

 the behaviour is "instinctive" in Professor 

 Lloyd Morgan's definition of the word, since it 

 is of a " specific congenital type, dependent upon 

 purely biological conditions, nowise guided by 

 conscious experience though affording data for 

 the life of consciousness." 



That the males of many animals are apt to 

 become quarrelsome during the mating period is 

 notorious. Darwin collected a number of facts, 

 many of which related to birds, showing the 

 nature and extent of the strife when the sexual 

 instinct dominated the situation. And pondering 

 over these facts, he deduced therefrom a " law of 

 battle," which, he believed, bore a direct relation 

 to the possession of a female. And it must 

 be admitted that he had excellent ground for his 

 conclusion in the fact not only that the conflicts 

 occur mainly during the pairing season, but that 





