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It cannot be reconciled with Lorenz's famous "water tank" analogy (his comparison of motivation to a fluid which accumulates within an animal, to be released or discharged only by the performance of specific acts), or with the usual division of behavior patterns into appetitive and consummatory acts.

Many of the songs given by males repeated from their mates may be considered appetitive, insofar as they do not bring about any appreciable decrease in motivation i.e. . The performance of such songs cannot be said to "exhaust" any considerable amount of motivation as the singing is continued indefinitely as long s the appropriate releasing situation is maintained. Other songs, morphologically identical and produced by the same causal factors, may be considered consummatory, insofar as they do bring about an obvious drop in motivation, leaving the performing bird in an apparently perfectly "satisfied" state of relaxation when the singing ends.

It is obvious that the "aim" of all this singing is to bring the performing bird into a particular "consummatory-situation", i.e. a situation which will provide the correct consummatory stimuli. in this case, the consummatory situation is a particular particular physical relationship with another bird.