70 BIRD WATCHING 



of the lower one almost touches it. All this time 

 the other male bird is quite near, but seems to take 

 little notice of the performance. At length the 

 frenzied one desists from his madness of motion, 

 and the two now hop about over the warren as 

 before, closely in each other's company. In some 

 ten minutes or so there is the same display — or 

 rather frenzy — but whether made by the same bird 

 or the other one I am unable to say. This time 

 it commences on the even turf and not in a hollow, 

 but after a few throws the bird finds one and throws, 

 thenceforth, over that." I have seen, I think, a 

 Japanese acrobat throw a wonderful succession of 

 somersaults backwards and forwards within his own 

 length. With the bird there was no somersault, but 

 the effect was something the same. The man's body 

 also presented the appearance of an arch in the air 

 (as when one vibrates a lighted joss-stick from side 

 to side), but, as the bird moved much more quickly, 

 the resemblance in its case was more perfect. 



" Once or twice again, now, one of the two birds 

 acts in the same way, always seeming to prefer to 

 do so over a depression in the ground. One then 

 flies up a little way into the air, descends again, 

 and, on alighting, instantly recommences as before, 

 again, I think, over a slight hollow. The motion is 

 equally violent, but not so long continued, some 

 seven or eight flings, perhaps, in all. At the end 

 of it he stops still, advances the head straight for- 

 wards, lowering it a trifle, swells the feathers, and 

 broadly fans the tail. Then the two birds fly at each 

 other, but almost in the act of closing they part, with 

 a little twitter, and commence hopping over the warren 



