Page:Territory in Bird Life by Henry Eliot Howard (London, John Murray edition).djvu/120

82 Whitethroats which happened in the latter part of April and lasted for three successive days. The scene of its occurrence was more or less the same on each occasion, and the area over which the birds wandered was comparatively small. The fighting was characterised by persistent effort and was of a most determined kind, and so engrossed did the assailants become that they even fluttered to the ground at my feet. No trace of a female was to be seen at any time during these three days, nor, during the pauses in the conflict, was the emotional behaviour of a kind which led me to suppose that a female was anywhere in the vicinity. And, if she had been near, she must have made her presence known, for the belief that she is a timid creature, skulking on such occasions in the undergrowth, is by no means borne out by experience.

Even more impressive was a battle between two male Cuckoos. It occurred high up in the air above the tops of some tall elm-trees which roughly marked the boundary line between their respective areas, and the actions of the birds were plainly visible. At the moment of actual collision the opponents were generally in a vertical position, and wings, feet, and beaks were made use of in turn; one could plainly see them strike at one another with their feet, and one could observe the open bill which generally denotes exhaustion, but may of course have been due to anger, or used as a means of producing terror. Yet no female appeared in the locality until six days after the occurrence of this struggle—and