voL.xiv] 'TEllRITOKY IN BIRD LIFE.' 273 



is that most birds pair for life ; my reasons for believing this 

 are, first, that one very often finds birds in pairs in their 

 winter-quarters : even ducks, whilst in flocks during the 

 winter, ver}^ often break up into pairs. Stonechats, Black 

 Redstarts, and Firecrests occur in pairs in their winter- 

 quarters ; and my own experience is that flocks of Finches 

 during mid-winter usually contain approximately equal 

 numbers of both sexes, and that Redwings and Fieldfares 

 often seem to be paired before they depart. Again, I have 

 observed cases in which it appeared to me that the female 

 reached and occupied the old territory first. Also, the pair 

 occasionally arrives simultaneously, and so presumably 

 both together. I have just seen a pair of Wheatears travelling 

 together. Of course, I do not deny that the male normally 

 arrives first ; there may well be a physiological reason for 

 this, and it may also have a survival-value, as suggested by 

 Mr. Howard. 



Nor, I think, is the contrast between the breeding-time 

 behaviour and the behaviour during the rest of the year 

 quite as thorough as Mr. Howard suggests : Robins, Stone- 

 chats, Black Redstarts, and possibly some other birds, un- 

 doubtedly keep off intruders from their autumn and winter 

 residences. Further, I have some fairly good evidence for 

 believing that many birds' winter wanderings take them, 

 subject, of course, to some extent to food-supply and climate, 

 to the same winter-quarters, and also to the same resting- 

 places in spring and autumn, year after year. Undoubtedly 

 a great many birds lose the exclusiveness of their territorial 

 instinct after the breeding-season is over ; but I believe birds 

 are more conservative with regard to the journeys they 

 undertake than is often supposed. 



There are other respects in which I think the seasonal 

 contrast is less sharp than Mr. Howard suggests ; thus, 

 I have not infrequently heard Buntings singing, and Chaf- 

 finches also, whilst still in flocks ; nor is the song in winter- 

 quarters or on migration invariably, as Mr. Howard suggests, 

 a feeble, spasmodic affair. 



I think, too, that a difference in kind, not merely in degree, 

 ought to be recognized between the territoriality of the small 

 land-birds and that of the clift-breeding birds. JMost small 

 passerine birds get all their food within their territory ; the 

 cliff -breeding birds merely require a nesting-site. It is 

 misleading to say that a Herring-Gull " cannot be allowed 

 so much space as a Bunting." The point is that it does not 

 require so much space, seeing that there are no territorial 



