WILLOW WABBLEE 



conflicts vary much in intensity, appearing sometimes to lack 

 determination and to be more in the nature of play, yet from 

 closely studying the conditions under which they occur I 

 believe that, in the majority of instances, they represent a 

 genuine trial of strength, and that the combatants are in 

 earnest. It is necessary to bear in mind the strength and 

 capability of the actors, and to remember that even the most 

 deadly of contests must always appear to us as nothing but a 

 fluttering of tiny wings, and might readily be described by an 

 onlooker, ignorant of the previous history, as a game. In the 

 case of the Warblers it is not probable that the conflicts often 

 result in the death of one of the combatants, since their bills 

 are not of the type that would easily inflict serious injury. The 

 law of territory, moreover, does not demand that the struggles 

 shall be fatal. That the weaker males shall be driven away 

 and thus leave the stronger to reproduce in peace is all that is 

 required. This law has but one end in view, namely, that the- 

 strength of the species shall at all costs be maintained, and if 

 the conflicts were always, or in a large number of cases, to 

 terminate fatally this end would not be attained. For since it 

 can clearly not ordain which individual shall compete with 

 which, since, in fact, the law of chance must here be relied 

 upon, battles must frequently occur between two individuals 

 both flt. to reproduce; in which case the death of one 

 member would be a loss, not a gain, to the species as a 

 whole. If, therefore, the individuals of any one species were 

 to develop such extraordinary pugnacity that surrender were 

 out of the question, and a termination were only reached 

 when one or the other succumbed to its injuries, that species 

 would be at a disadvantage in the struggle for existence, 

 and in the course of time would probably be eliminated. 

 As it is, these contests do in the case of some species 

 sometimes terminate fatally, and how easy it would be, if 

 truly beneficial, for a species to arise with a motto of "no 

 surrender " can be seen from the fact that man for his own 

 amusement has in a comparatively short space of time been 



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