FIGHTING CONTROLLED 95 



a note which is pecuHar to times of distress, and 

 followed it thus until finally it disappeared in 

 a hedge. The rapidly uttered note and the 

 excitement of the birds caused some commotion, 

 and the male from an adjoining territory 

 approached the scene. Now one would have 

 expected that the presence of this bird, and 

 possibly its aid in driving away a common 

 enemy, would have been welcomed ; one would 

 have thought that all else would have been 

 subservient to the common danger, and that 

 so real a menace to the offspring would have 

 evoked an impulse in the parent powerful enough 

 to dominate the situation and subordinate all the 

 activities of the bird to the attainment of its end. 

 But what happened ? Three times during this 

 incident, the male, whose young were in danger, 

 abandoned the pursuit of the Weasel and 

 pursued the intruder. It was not merely that 

 he objected to the presence of this neighbouring 

 male in a passive way, nor even that he had 

 a momentary skirmish with it, but that he 

 determinedly drove the intruder beyond the 

 boundary and only then returned to harass the 

 Weasel. 



Thus it seems clear that the proximate end to 

 which the fighting is directed is not necessarily 

 the defeat of the intruder, but its removal from a 

 certain position. And inasmuch as this result 

 will be obtained whether the retreat is brought 

 about by fear of an opponent or by physical 

 exhaustion, it is manifest that too much signifi- 

 cance need not be attached to the amount of 



