THE WILSON BULLETIN 
A QUARTERLY MAGAZINE OF ORNITHOLOGY 
Published by the Wilson Ornithological Club 
Vol. XLVIII            SEPTEMBER, 1936                      No. 3 
Vol. XLIII (New Series) Whole Number 177 
ANALYTICAL STUDIES OF GROUP BEHAVIOR IN BIRDS1 
BY W. C. ALLEE 
The bird flock as a social organization is again receiving a part 
of the attention it deserves. With increase in facility in marking in- 
dividuals, there has come new and valuable information regarding 
some aspects of the intimate social structure of bird groups. Some 
of the earlier work was reviewed by Allee (1931, 1934) ; the most 
spectacular of the modern trends was initiated by Schjelderup-Ebbe 
who has recently summarized his own studies (1935). In this latest 
summary, Schjelderup-Ebbe says (p. 949), "One of the points which 
the recognition of each individual bird in the flock of the same species

makes it possible to observe is that there exists among birds a definite

order of precedence or social distinctions.2  The precedence in rank 
proved to be founded upon certain conditions of despotism. Between 
any two birds of each species, in a large number of species examined, 
one individual invariably had precedence over the other . . ." Schjel-

derup-Ebbe records that he has observed such despotism in over fifty 
species of birds including the common chicken, a common sparrow, 
various ducks, geese., pheasants, cockatoos, parrots, various tits, and 
the common caged canary. 
Stimulated by Schjelderup-Ebbe's early observations, for several 
years at Chicago, we have been accumulating data concerning the 
social hierarchy in some few species of birds. Our experience with 
the common chicken (Masure and Allee, 1934a) is similar to that of 
Schjelderup-Ebbe, Murchison, and other observers. With the other 
birds, our observations differ significantly. 
Masure and I found first with pigeons that the position in the 
social order is not so firmly fixed that one bird of a given contact 
pair always is dominant and the other always gives way. Rather we 
found that individual relationsnips in the flocks of pigeons which we 
1This report is a review of studies published or to be published in detail

elsewhere. 
2A1 italics as in the original.