1 62 The his h Nat7i7'a list, June, 



seen in the yard no more. She had not participated in the 

 fighting, but she saw no use, it would seem, in remaining 

 with a husband who couldn't win a nesting site for her. The 

 unfortunate cock Sparrow remained in the 3^ard all through 

 the spring and summer, perched usually on a high roof-top 

 where he evidently regarded himself as possessing a small 

 domain, and where we used to hear him chirping a plaintive 

 challenge all through the da3^ Wh}', it may be asked, did he 

 not follow his mate ? I can onl}' suggest that he saw more 

 chance of securing a nesting site where he was than by going 

 elsewhere to ground already in the occupation of other 

 Sparrows. Probably he was right, if he had only used his 

 opportunities, when he had them, a little more judiciously ; 

 but the incident shows that competition for territory some- 

 times occurs between birds of different species, and in that 

 form undoubtedly prevents certain individuals from breeding 

 at all. 



It would not be hard to collect a good many cases more or 

 less parallel to the one I have just mentioned. For example, 

 many cases are on record of rivalry between Herons and Rooks 

 for possession of trees in which to breed. At Tintern, in 

 county Wexford, a war which lasted, I am told, for a con- 

 siderable number of years was waged between these two 

 species for a clump of old trees which they both wanted to 

 build in. Hundreds of Rooks, I am assured, were killed by 

 the Herons before the question was settled, but in the end it 

 was settled by the victory of the persevering Rooks, Again, 

 the Starling has to defend its territory against the Swift, and I 

 remember coming suddenly on a pair of Starlings which had 

 struck a full grown Swift down on a grass plot and appeared 

 to be on the point of killing it when my arrival interrupted 

 them. But a more remarkable case of enmity is that between 

 the Missel-thrush and the Blackbird. On two separate 

 occasions I have seen a Missel-thrush during the nesting season 

 flying along carrying a murdered or half murdered Blackbird 

 in his talons, just as a Hawk would do ; in each case the bird 

 was carried several hundred j^ards, and then dropped in the 

 middle of a field — in one case dead, in the other mangled 

 beyond hope of recovery. The Blackbird's only imaginable 

 crime was that he had intruded, or perhaps attempted to sing. 



