AN ISLAND EXISTENCE loi 



struggle but lay quietly in my hand. This sort of behavior 

 was a new experience in my ornithology; never before had I 

 seen wild creatures so confident of good will. After a bit I 

 opened the cage door and permitted them to escape. They 

 flew up in the rafters and began darting back and forth. As I 

 settled in my chair they seemed to have forgotten my presence. 

 I lay back and watched. 



One was perched on a rafter, readjusting a microscopic 

 feather, when the other backed the entire length of the hut 

 and rushed headlong at the sitting bird. The impact knocked it 

 off its perch but it recovered before it had fallen far and retal- 

 iated with a rush. They seemed ablaze with hatred, the hut 

 walls hummed with the sound of their fury. Back and forth 

 they swept, wings ablur, squeaking and calling in trilling cre- 

 scendos. Then to my utter amazement they suddenly declared 

 a truce and sat side by side on a convenient rafter and began 

 carefully preening their plumage. The open door and I were 

 ignored. The battle, if battle it was, started again. The impacts 

 of their meetings were terrific; they drove headlong at each 

 other from opposite sides of the building meeting in a swirl of 

 feathers and beating wings. Again the birds rested. 



Half an hour they were still at it, bristling with energy. My 

 neck was tired from staring up at them; a task called me out- 

 side. Carefully, I propped the door open so they could escape. 

 On my return I looked in vain among the rafters for the birds. 

 They were not there. My glance fell on the cot. In the center 

 was a tiny fluff of bedraggled feathers. It was one of the hum- 

 mers. The creature was still alive but very weak. Its feet 

 twitched convulsively, its tongue hung drooping from the end 

 of its long bill. I could find no blood and I pulled out its wings 

 to see if they were broken; they seemed undamaged and I 

 folded them closed again. Presently it drew in its tongue and 

 began sending up series after series of faint discordant squeaks. 



