Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 4 (1900).djvu/212

184 there were numbers of them, and dancing of a more pronounced, or at least of a more violent kind than I had yet seen, commenced. Otherwise it was quite the same, but the extra degree of excitement made it, of course, much more interesting. It was, in fact, remarkable and extraordinary. Running forward with wings extended and slightly raised, a bird would suddenly fling them high up, and then, as it were, "pitch" about over the ground, waving and tossing them, stopping short, turning, pitching forward again, leaping into the air, descending and continuing, till with another leap it would make a short eccentric flight low over the ground, and pitch suddenly down in a sharp curve. I talk of their "pitching" about because their movements seemed at times hardly under control, and each violent run or plunge ending, in fact, with a sudden pitch forward of the body, the wings straggling about (often pointed forward over the head) in an uncouth dislocated sort of way, the effect was as if the birds were being blown about over the ground in a violent wind. They seemed, in fact, to be crazy, and their sudden and abrupt return, after a few mad moments, to propriety and decorum had a curious and "bizarre" effect. Though having just seen them behave so, one seemed almost to doubt that they had. One bird in particular that had come to within a moderate distance of me made itself conspicuous in the way I have tried to describe. It was one of some half a dozen gathered together under a solitary crab-apple tree almost directly opposite me, and both with the naked eye and the glasses I observed them all thoroughly well. One would often run at or pursue another with these antics. I saw one that was standing quietly caught, and, as it were, covered up in a little storm of wings before it could run away and begin waving its own. These little chases were evidently in sport, not anger. Very different was the action and demeanour of the two birds I saw about to fight. This and the general behaviour of the group made it evident that they were stimulated in their dance-antics by each other's presence. This is by far the finest display of the sort that I have yet seen, and must certainly be due to the rain, which the birds obviously enjoyed. They had been quite dull and listless before, but as