274 BUITISH BIKDS. [vol. xiv. 



limits to its feeding-territory. It is confusing and misleading 

 to appty the " territorial " theory to cliff -breeding and other 

 gregarious birds ; and I do not see that Mr. Howard makes 

 out a good case for distinguishing between the chff-breeder 

 and such birds as Rooks. It may be true that Rooks are 

 gregarious breeders from choice and Guillemots from necessity, 

 but so far as the appropriation, defence and limitation of the 

 territory of each pair and the feeding of the young are 

 concerned, the position is identical. 



Altogether, I wonder whether Mr. Howard is not generalizing 

 from wholly insufficient data. That he has made out a good 

 case for the importance of the territory to the majority of 

 English passerine birds is, I think, undeniable ; but his 

 attempts to apply his theory to cliff-breeding sea-birds, and 

 to the frequent " mobbing " of large birds of prey by smaller 

 species, seem to me to rest on unsound arguments ; whilst 

 he nowhere shows that he has tried to discover whether his 

 theory is apphcable to birds that hve in tropical forests, or in 

 other parts of the world. It may be that the territory is 

 more important in temperate regions of variable climate 

 and, consequently, uncertain food-supply than in any of the 

 " well-regulated " cHmates, both north and south. 



Mr Howard shows, I think, conclusively, that both song 

 and migration have a certain " survival-value " in relation 

 to the acquisition and securing of a territory ; with regard 

 to song, his observations seem to confirm those recently 

 described by Mr. J. P. Burkitt in the Irish Katuralist. But 

 it seems to me that Mr. Howard gives too little attention to 

 other important aspects of these two habits. The fact that 

 they have a " survival- value " connected with the territory 

 does not prove that they have no other value. 



My experience (or lack of experience) leads me to wonder 

 whether Mr. Howard does not exaggerate the amount of 

 fighting in which birds indulge. I think the impression made 

 on most readers of this book would be that birds spend as 

 much time fighting each other as they spend in feeding or 

 singing. Personally, I very rarely see birds fight. 



One other small point. I am pretty certain that most 

 Greenfinches that breed in England, like most Linnets, are 

 not the birds from local stubble-ftelds, but are spring 

 immigrants. This would account for the fact on which Mr. 

 Howard comments, that, unhke some other Finches, they 

 do not appear at their breeding-places at all until late March 

 or April and then stay there all day long. He also seems 

 not to realize that the flocks of Lapwings, Chaffinches and 



