rance, and that consequently two or more are
always ready to compete for a mate. Her presence is presumably the
condition under which his pugnacious nature is rendered susceptible to
its appropriate stimulus, the stimulus being, of course, supplied by the
opponent. There would be nothing against this interpretation if it were
in accord with the facts; but it can, I think, be shown that the males
are just as pugnacious and the conflicts just as severe even when the
question of securing a mate is definitely excluded; and I shall now give
the evidence which has led me to this conclusion.

In the previous chapter we had occasion to refer to the difference in
the times of arrival of the male and female migrants, and we came to the
conclusion, it may be remembered, that this was a fact of some
importance, because it gave us a clue to the meaning of much that was
otherwise obscure in their behaviour. But it is also of importance in
connection with the particular aspect of the problem which we now have
in view, for if it can be shown that males, when they first reach their
breeding grounds, are even then intolerant of one another's presence, if
their actions and attitudes betray similar symptoms of quasi-conation,
if disputes are rife and the struggles of a kind to preclude all doubt
as to their reality, then it is manifest that in such cases their
intolerance cannot be due to the presence of the female.

Here, however, I must refer to a view which is held by some
psychologists, namely, that amongst the higher animals, even on the
occasion of the first performance of an instinctive act, there is some
vague awareness of the proximate end to be attained. Discussing the
nature of instincts, Dr M'Dougall[3] says, "Nor does our definition
insist, as some do, that the instinctive action is performed without
awareness of the end towards which it tends, for this, too, is not
essential; it may be, and in the case of the lower animals no doubt
often is, so performed, as also by the very young child, but in the case
of the higher animals some prevision of the immediate end, however
vague, probably accompanies an instinctive action that has often been
repeated." A similar view seems to be held by Dr Stout.[4] "As I have
already shown," he says, "animals in their instinctive actions do
actually behave from the outset as if they were continuously interested
in the development of what is for them one and the same situation or
course of event