the situation and left. The will to fight was
clearly lacking, yet their presence was a source of annoyance to the
owners of the territories. A short time previously a female had
accompanied one of the males and was at that time somewhere in the
vicinity, but beyond this there was no evidence to show that either of
them were paired, and even if the presence of the female were the reason
of the pugnacity of the one, it could not well account for that of the
other.

The neutral ground does not always happen to be so close at hand as in
the case of the meadow referred to. Sometimes the birds will resort to a
particular field, attracted probably by a plentiful supply of food, and
here they collect and behave as they do during the winter, running this
way and that as the fancy takes them, meeting together by accident at
one moment, parting at another, according to the direction in which they
happen to wander. Of animosity there is little sign; the season might be
the middle of winter instead of the middle of March for all the
indication there is of sexual development, and yet one knows that they
will behave differently when they leave this ground, as presently they
will, and return to their territories in the surrounding neighbourhood,
and that there each one will fight if necessary to preserve its acre
from intrusion.

It would seem, then, from this that the fighting must bear some relation
to the particular area of ground in which it occurs; and unless it can
be shown that there is some other factor in the external environment of
the male, that is the direction in which we must look for the condition
under which the instinct is rendered susceptible. One's thoughts turn,
of course, to the female, but she too passes backwards and forwards
between the territories and the neutral ground, and if her presence were
really a _conditio sine qua non_ of the strife, one would like to know
why, when she leaves those territories and joins the flock and the males
do likewise, similar conflicts should not prevail there also.

Other species have their neutral ground, but the environment seldom
affords such facilities for observation as does that of the Lapwing.
Even though the Moor-Hens, who are so conspicuously intolerant upon the
pool, _do_ feed together amicably upon the meadows adjoining; and the
Chaffinch that is so pugnacious in the morning, _does_ seek out the
flock later in the day; yet their conditions of existence prevent our