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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
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