The Project Gutenberg EBook of Territory in Bird Life, by H. Eliot Howard

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Title: Territory in Bird Life

Author: H. Eliot Howard

Illustrator: G. E. Lodge
H. Groenvold

Release Date: April 14, 2010 [EBook #31987]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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| TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: |
| |
| There are a large number of compound words in |
| this book including bird names which occur joined, |
| spaced and hyphenated. No attempt has been made to |
| correct these discrepancies as these are mostly |
| alternative spellings of the same word. In the case |
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TERRITORY IN BIRD LIFE

[Illustration: A pair of Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers attacking a Great
Spotted Woodpecker

Emery Walker ph.sc.]

TERRITORY IN
BIRD LIFE

BY H. ELIOT HOWARD

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY
G. E. LODGE AND H. GROeNVOLD

NEW YORK
E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY
1920

PREFACE

When studying the Warblers some twenty years ago, I became aware of the
fact that each male isolates itself at the commencement of the breeding
season and exercises dominion over a restricted area of ground. Further
investigation, pursued with a view to ascertaining the relation of this
particular mode of behaviour to the system of reproduction, led to my
studying various species, not only those of close affinity, but those
widely remote in the tree of avian life. The present work is the outcome
of those investigations. In it I have endeavoured to interpret the
prospective value of the behaviour, and to trace out the relationships
in the organic and inorganic world which have determined its sur