36 BIRD WATCHING 



shuttlecock just before it turns over to descend, and 

 this resemblance is increased by their flying perpen- 

 dicularly, or almost so, with their heads up and tails 

 down. Indeed, they seem more to be thrown through 

 the air than to fly. Then, in one fall, they sink 

 together into the grass. Or they will keep mounting 

 above and above each other to some height, and then 

 descend in something the same way, but more sweep- 

 ingly (for let no one hope to see exactly how they do 

 it), seeming to make with their bodies the soft links of 

 a feathered chain — or as though their own " linked 

 sweetness " of song had been translated into matter 

 and motion. In each case they make all the time, 

 as convenient, little kissipecks, rather than pecks, at 

 each other. 



Again, in the case of the redshank, though I have 

 little doubt now that the following, which was both 

 aquatic and aerial, was a genuine combat between two 

 males, yet often at the time, and especially in its preface 

 and conclusion, it seemed as though the birds were of 

 opposite sexes, and, if fighting at all, only amorously. 



" Two birds are pursuing each other on the bank 

 of the river. The water is low, and a little point 

 of mud and shingle projects into the stream. Up and 

 down this, from the herbage to the water's edge and 

 back again, the birds run, one close behind the other, 

 and each uttering a funny little piping cry — ' tu-tu-oo, 

 tu-oo, tu-oo, tu-oo.' It is one, as far as I can see, 

 that always pursues the other, who, after a time, flies 

 to the opposite bank. The pursuer follows, and the 

 chase is now carried on by a series of little flights 

 from bank to bank, sometimes straight across, some- 

 times slanting a little up or down the stream, whilst 



