]

Of these explanations, the first is not altogether satisfactory. It
requires the presence of a female and, as we have seen, a female is by
no means always present. Then it attributes to the one side of the
inherited nature an influence which is not borne out by the facts, for
in the ordinary routine of existence, without the incentive of battle,
every individual is liable to wander occasionally beyond its boundary
and to intrude temporarily upon its neighbours; and this it could
scarcely do, providing its nature to remain within the territory were
powerful enough to dominate its movements and curtail its activities
even during the excitement of an encounter. But there is nothing
inherently improbable in the alternative hypothesis, nor anything that
is at all inconsistent with the behaviour as observed; on the contrary,
if it is admitted, the facts become connected together and exhibit a
meaning which they otherwise would not have possessed.

So much for the controlling influence of "position," which alone seems
to me sufficient ground for believing that the fighting has reference to
the territory. But it is not the whole of the evidence.

Now if it were possible to demonstrate by actual observation that those
males which had not established territories were not pugnacious, we
should have something in the nature of proof of the correctness of this
view. Demonstrative evidence of this kind is, however, unattainable. Yet
we can come very near to obtaining it by reason of a peculiar feature
which marks the process of acquiring territory--the neutral ground. The
Lapwing will serve as an illustration. In the previous chapter I
referred to the small flocks that appeared in the accustomed water
meadow early in February, and I described how they settled day after day
in that meadow, but only in a limited part of it, where they passed
their time in rest, in preening their feathers, or in running this way
and that lazily searching for food; and how, at length, the flock
dwindled by reason of individuals breaking away in order to secure
positions on the remaining part of the meadow. Here the neutral ground
is adjacent to the territories, and, while still occupied by the flock,
is resorted to by the males that had deserted that flock in order to
establish those territories.

Suppose now that we have the whole meadow in view from some point of
vantage. In front of us are the territories, in the distance the neutral
ground; and