Page:The British Warblers A History with Problems of Their Lives - 3 of 9.djvu/24

 under stress of intense excitement, a low, lengthened kind of whining, very plaintive, resembling in some measure the word pheu, but they sometimes make a curious gurgling sound, which seems to be produced low down in the throat. But it is not only when two males happen to have settled in the same locality on the same morning that these fights take place. I remember one case in which a male, having arrived some days previously, was even engaged in courting a female, when another male, undoubtedly a new arrival, appeared on the scene, and a severe struggle ensued. The new-comer was immediately attacked and flew away pursued by the owner. The flight of both males was slow, and in the course of it they circled in and out of the trees, so that they kept returning to where I was standing, and I was thus enabled to witness a great part of the contest. The intruder would settle, and the owner would immediately do the same quite close to him, never for a moment leaving him alone, but compelling him, by incessant attacks, to move from place to place. In this way the fight actively proceeded for a considerable time, the intruder sometimes retaliating, which resulted in a fierce struggle, both birds falling to the ground locked together, where they would remain fluttering and rolling about. During the pauses in the contest both males sang, but the intruder's song was neither so loud nor so vigorous as his opponent's. The female did not follow the combatants, and the owner, who had previously been courting her, seemed to neglect her during the struggle. As far as I was enabled to judge, she remained an uninterested spectator at the opposite end of the territory, though when the fight was over I saw her again close to the owner. The males, on the first morning after their arrival, are not always antagonistic, for I have seen two, which had only just arrived, evidently on the most friendly terms, following one another and feeding within a few feet on the same branches, one of them, apparently the leader, frequently singing, the other following in his wake.