il _Rallus aquaticus._

Corn-Crake _Crex crex._

Moor-Hen _Gallinula chloropus._

Coot _Fulica atra._

Wood-Pigeon _Columba palumbus._

Turtle-Dove _Streptopelia turtur._

Partridge _Perdix perdix._

Black Grouse _Lyrurus tetrix britannicus._

Red Grouse _Lagopus scoticus._

TERRITORY IN BIRD LIFE

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

In his _Manual of Psychology_ Dr Stout reminds us that "Human language
is especially constructed to describe the mental states of human beings,
and this means that it is especially constructed so as to mislead us
when we attempt to describe the working of minds that differ in a great
degree from the human."

The use of the word "territory" in connection with the sexual life of
birds is open to the danger which we are here asked to guard against,
and I propose, therefore, before attempting to establish the theory on
general grounds, to give some explanation of what the word is intended
to represent and some account of the exact position that representation
is supposed to occupy in the drama of bird life.

The word is capable of much expansion. There cannot be territories
without boundaries of some description; there cannot well be boundaries
without disputes arising as to those boundaries; nor, one would
imagine, can there be disputes without consciousness as a factor
entering into the situation; and so on, until by a simple mental
process we conceive of a state in bird life analogous to that which we
know to be customary amongst ourselves. Now, although the term "breeding
territory," when applied to the sexual life of birds, is not altogether
a happy one, it is difficult to know how otherwise to give expression to
the facts observed. Let it then be clearly understood that the
expression "securing a territory" is used to denote a process, or rather
part of a process, which, in order to insure success to the individual
in the attainment of reproduction, has been gradually evolved to meet
the exigencies of diverse circumstances. Regarded thus, we avoid the
risk of conceiving of the act of securing a territory as a detached
event in the life of a bird, and avoid, I hope, the risk of a conception
based upon the meaning of the word when used to describe human as
opposed to animal procedure.

Success in t