SIDE LIGHTS ON BIRDS 



the belligerents. One bird flew away but the 

 invader remained in the spout. When we re- 

 turned to the window a few moments later the 

 first cock had come back and was again rending 

 his adversary. We drove him ofi, and his victim 

 at length raised himself wearily to the edge of 

 the spout : then he fell into the garden, where he 

 was instantly pounced upon by his watchful 

 rival, who then administered the coup-de-grace. 

 This is the first time we have seen a duel to the 

 death between sparrows, and as the hen watched 

 the conflict with the utmost complacency, we 

 have reason to think that in this case might 

 coincided with light. 



Miss Frances Pitt has given a somewhat similar 

 instance in the case of a pair of moorhens that 

 took possession of a certain area of marshland. 



'* All day and every day," she wrote, " they 

 kept a keen look-out : at the slightest sign of a 

 stranger their battle cries were heard, the clarion 

 calls ringing over the swamp, and they rushed to 

 the attack. Right is might even on the bog, and 

 they were strong in their indignation. The 

 invaders were in the wrong and they knew it, 

 they were troubled with guilty consciences : 

 they came sneaking down the streamlet, wading 

 along its muddy margins as if fearful of every 

 ripple in the water : they stole guiltily from rush 

 tuft to rush tuft, treading delicately across the 

 moss, and peeping from the shelter of a small 

 alder bush with such a furtive air as plainly told 

 that they knew well they had no business to be 

 there." 



In the fight that followed cock fought with 

 cock and hen with hen and in every case the in- 

 vaders were defeated. 



With rooks it is clear that a given belt of trees 

 is marked out as the property of a particular 



84 



