Eliot Howard's “law of territory” in birds: the influence of Charles Moffat and Edmund Selous

Eliot Howard presented his theory of territory in the nine-part The British warblers published between 1907 and 1914. He is generally considered to have been unaware of significant earlier accounts of this theory, in particular by Altum and by Moffat in 1903 in The Irish naturalist. This periodical was perhaps little read outside Ireland, but Howard's wife came from Donegal, and his regular birdwatching there make early familiarity probable. In 1904, he began planning an ambitious work on warblers that would draw attention to supposed defects in the theory of sexual selection. Probably hastened by Selous highlighting sexual selection in The zoologist in 1906, part one of The British warblers in 1907 carried a forthright attack on Darwin's theory. Territory was first mentioned in part two in 1908, but without elaboration, after Selous in 1907 described the Ruff's territory on its assembly ground. In November 1910, in part five of The British warblers, after Selous that year had stressed territory on Eurasian Black Grouse leks, Howard's writing became more focused, and a “law of territory” was stated to be widespread in birds: males struggle, not for females, but for territory, and if won, a mate is won also. Many common features point to the crucial influence of Moffat's article on the theory proposed by Howard. His awareness of Moffat's work is further evidenced by a newspaper report found among his papers, about a Dublin lecture in January 1910 by R. M. Barrington, who stated that Moffat's theory was supported by Howard.