134 RELATION OF SONG TO THE TERRITORY 



passes outside the limits of its accustomed area. 

 This aspect of behaviour has already been fully 

 discussed in connection with the question of 

 hostility, and everyone, I imagine, must by 

 now be pretty well familiar with the facts. 

 However, it does not often happen that we 

 are given such an aid to interpretation as is 

 vouchsafed to us in the altered behaviour of 

 the male when it joins the flock, and if, as 

 I believe, song and hostility are intimately 

 associated, forming part of an inter-related 

 whole which, for biological interpretation, has, 

 as its end, the attainment of reproduction, it 

 is not surprising that circumstances which lead 

 to the modification of the one should likewise 

 affect the other ; I offer no apology, therefore, 

 for adverting to this aspect of behaviour once 

 again. 



Now a male may leave its territory for three 

 reasons to pursue an intruder, to join the flock 

 on neutral ground, or to find the necessary means 

 of subsistence on other feeding grounds. On 

 each of these occasions it hears the song of, and 

 is in close contact with, other males ; and if the 

 relationship of which we are speaking be really 

 exclusive of cross-correlation, its instinct ought 

 to respond with the customary freedom. But 

 what happens ? A male pursues its rival, 

 betraying much emotion and singing extrava- 

 gantly, until the boundary is passed, when 

 emotion subsides and it is silent ; or, it flies to 

 the flock on neutral ground, and, although 

 surrounded by the very males that a short time 



