Page:The British Warblers A History with Problems of Their Lives - 4 of 9.djvu/54

 of the female, it becomes less pronounced. It is not uncommon to see a male fly high in the air from the top of one tree to the top of another several hundred yards distant, and thence to another, finally returning to his starting-point.

Since they are not very plentiful, a struggle between the males for some particular breeding territory is not of so frequent occurrence as is the case with many other species, but if two arrive simultaneously in the same place a quarrel ensues. Under such circumstances I have never seen them actually fighting, but their excitement is very great, and they scold one another very vigorously, relaxing and fluffing out their feathers, spreading their tails, and, after the manner of other members of the genus, warbling and imitating other species.

When, some little time after the first male, the female does arrive, the male becomes intensely excited, showing it both in his actions and song, but she pursues her way in the undergrowth or in the bottom of a hedgerow, in search of food, regardless of his attentions. He follows her closely, creeping in and out of the hedge behind, at one moment appearing on the top, then disappearing, or in an excitable way flying up into some tree close at hand, singing, warbling, or incessantly uttering his quiet hissing note. If she leaves the undergrowth and travels along the top of the hedge, or in some such visible position, he flies towards, her with a peculiar flight, which is more of a flutter than the slow flapping flight of many other species, and although his excitement is clearly intense throughout all these proceedings, it does not reach its limit until he thus approaches her very closely. Following in her wake he throws out his breast feathers, spreads his tail, and erects the feathers on his head, and when in a more open position spreads out and flaps his wings, appearing to tumble about in an helpless condition. During this period of excitement the customary piece of dead grass is searched for, picked up, and finally