Page:Territory in Bird Life by Henry Eliot Howard (London, John Murray edition).djvu/286

224 is not the only bird that acts as a stimulus to the instinct of the Blackcap; Whitethroats are often attacked, and the Chiffchaff is a source of irritation. Even when a male Blackcap is engaged in incubation, it will leave its nest on the approach of a Chiffchaff, and, having driven away the intruder, proceed to sing excitedly. At other times both male and female will combine to attack this small intruder.

But this does not mean that the Chiffchaff suffers persecution; it is itself most aggressive, as is shown by the fact that it will join in the Blackcap quarrels and attack the combatants indiscriminately. Its behaviour, however, requires further consideration, especially as regards its relations with its nearest of kin—the Willow-Warbler; for here we have a mutual intolerance which is somewhat remarkable, and evidence of it can be found wherever the birds occupy the same ground. Now it can be observed that the hostility is not limited merely to occasional acts of intolerance, but that there is organised warfare lasting, it may be, for many days in succession, and that the actions of the birds bear the stamp of a persistent striving towards some end. On one occasion the Willow-Warbler may be the aggressor, on another the Chiffchaff, and at times it is difficult to say which of the two is responsible for the quarrel. In size and in strength they are equal, and the "will to fight" is as strong in the one as in the other, so that it is seldom, if ever, possible to point to