of the bird. In comparing the
behaviour of the migratory male with that of the resident, attention was
drawn to the manner in which the occupation of a territory was effected:
the former bird, it may be remembered, established itself without delay,
whereas the latter did so only by degrees, and the difference was
attributed to the incidence of migration which required a closer
correspondence between organic process and external environment. But the
significance for us just now lies in the fact that the definiteness,
which accompanies the initial behaviour of the migratory male in
relation to the territory, cannot have been acquired by repetition; for
this reason, that when the male occupies its space of ground at the end
of its long and arduous journey, it does so without preparation or
experiment, even without hesitation, as if aware that it was making good
the first step in the process of reproduction. No doubt, if it happened
to be an individual that had already experienced the enjoyment of
reproduction, it might be aware of the immediate results to be achieved
and act accordingly. But among the hosts of migrants that one observes,
there must be many males which have not previously mated; and yet, upon
arrival, they all behave in a similarly definite manner--so that
experience cannot well be the primary factor in the situation. If, then,
the essential condition of habit formation is absent and experience is
eliminated, there is nothing left but racial preparation to fall back
upon.

Nevertheless, it is true that many resident males seem to pass through
a period of indecision before they establish themselves permanently in
their respective territories; they come and go, their visits grow more
and more prolonged, and only after the lapse of some considerable time
does the process of establishment attain that degree of completeness
which is represented in the initial behaviour of the migratory male.
Their whole procedure seems therefore to bear the stamp of individual
acquirement; and, if it stood alone, we might be content to construe it
thus, but the example of the migratory male necessitates our looking
elsewhere for the real meaning of the indecision.

Let me first of all give some instances of the persistence with which a
male remains in one spot, and this despite the fact that it has no mate.

A Reed-Bunting occupied a central territory in a strip of marshy ground
inhabited annually by four or five males of thi