32 DISPOSITION TO SECURE A TERRITORY 



or exercising their vocal powers to the full ; 

 and it will be found that, in the majority of 

 instances, these males are solitary individuals, 

 that they pass the early hours of the morning 

 alone, and that their normal routine of calling, 

 singing, or searching for food, is only interrupted 

 by quarrels with their neighbours. The same 

 locality is visited regularly — not only the same 

 acre or so of ground, but even the same elm 

 or oak, has, as its daily occupant, the same cock 

 Chaffinch. And temporary desertions from the 

 territory occur also, much Uke those referred to 

 in the life of the Bunting, but perhaps not so 

 frequently. One has grown so accustomed 

 during the dark days of winter to the sociable 

 side of Chaffinch behaviour — to the large flocks 

 searching for food, to the endless stream of 

 individuals returning in the evening to roost 

 in the holly-trees, to the absence of song — 

 that this radical departure from the normal 

 routine comes as something of a surprise; for 

 the days are still short, the temperature is still 

 low, the nesting season is still many weeks 

 ahead, and yet for part of the day, and for just 

 that part when the promptings of hunger must 

 be strongest, the male, instead of joining the 

 flock, isolates itself and expends a good deal of 

 energy in insuring that its isolation shall be 

 complete. And in place of the silence we 

 hear from all directions the cheerful song 

 uttered with such marked persistency that it 

 almost seems as if the bird itself must be 

 aware that by doing so it was advertising the 



