326 PET BIRDS OF BENGAL 



if he heard, or fancied he heard, the voice of 

 another male Shama close by, he worked him- 

 self up into a great fury. A friend of mine 

 took it into his head to whistle the Shama's 

 love-notes when he came to my aviary. When- 

 ever he did this, the cock Shama would at 

 once stand up alert and give out his peculiar 

 notes of anger — fchat fchat. As my friend 

 continued, the anger of the bird increased. It 

 puffed out all its feathers, furiously worked its 

 tail up and down and peered around for the 

 supposed rival. The first day my friend be- 

 gan the game, he was outside the aviary and 

 noticed that the bird became very restless 

 and flew about the aviary occasionally going 

 to the female, as if, to protect her from the 

 advances of the invisible lover. The next day 

 he went into the aviary and the Shama was 

 not long in finding out whence the notes 

 proceeded. But the bird's uneasiness was not 

 removed. It probably thought that my friend 

 had a male Shama concealed somewhere on 

 his person and flew up to very hear him and 

 stood in an attitude of defiance, calling as 

 loudly as it could in order to outdo my 

 friend. Not satisfied with wordy combats, it 

 began to sweep down on my friend trying to 



