BEHAVIOUR OF MIGRATORY MALES 25 



cases even weeks, before their consorts." Some 

 interesting details were given in British Birds ^ 

 in regard to the sex of the migrants that were 

 killed by striking the lantern at the Tuskar 

 Rock, Co. Wexford, on the 30th April 1914. In 

 all, there were twenty-four Whitethroats, nine 

 Willow- Warblers, eight Sedge- Warblers, and six 

 Wheatears ; and on dissection it was found that 

 twenty Whitethroats, seven Willow- Warblers, 

 eight Sedge- Warblers, and one Wheatear were 

 males. 



What a curious departure this seems from 

 the usual custom in the animal world ! Here 

 we have the spectacle afforded us of the males, 

 in whom presumably the sexual instinct has 

 awakened, deserting the females just at the 

 moment when we might reasonably expect their 

 impulse to accompany them would be strongest ; 

 and this because of their inherited disposition 

 to reach the breeding grounds. If, in order 

 to attain to reproduction, the male depended 

 primarily upon securing a female — whether by 

 winning or fighting matters not at the moment 

 — if her possession constituted the sole difference 

 in his external environment between success and 

 failure, then surely one would suppose that an 

 advantage must - rest with those individuals 

 which, instead of rushing forward and inflicting 

 upon themselves a life of temporary isola- 

 tion, remained with the females and increased 

 their opportunities for developing that mutual 

 appreciation which, by some, is held to be a 

 1 June 1915, R. M. Barrington. 



