WHEATEARS, DABCHICKS 75 



moment or two, their natural timidity. " Willing 

 to wound, but yet afraid to strike," seemed to me 

 to describe their mental attitude. 



Much has been said as to the pugnacity of 

 birds, but I think that a large amount of timidity 

 often mingles with this pugnacity, even in the most 

 pugnacious kinds. I have seen, for instance, two 

 pheasants sit, first, face to face, pecking timidly at, or 

 rather towards, each other, and then, on rising, make 

 various little half-hearted feints and runs, one at 

 another, as though trying to fight and not being 

 able to, and this for quite a long time. At last one 

 of them ran to some distance away, and then, turning, 

 made a most tremendous, fiery rush down upon the 

 other one, like a knight in the tilt-yard. Nothing 

 could have looked bolder, more spirited, more full of 

 fire and fury, but — just like these wheatears — at the 

 very moment that he should have hurled himself 

 upon his foe he swerved timidly aside, and all his 

 brave carriage was gone in a moment. And what 

 struck me (and, indeed, as humorous) was that this 

 other bird — the one thus charged down upon — who 

 had been just as timid, and had seemed to find 

 fighting equally difficult, did not retreat, as one 

 might have expected, before this great show, but 

 sat quietly, as knowing it to be " indeed but show," 

 and that there was nothing really to fear. In fact, 

 it was like the drawing of swords between Nym and 

 Pistol in Henry V., each being afraid to use his, 

 and knowing the other to be so too. Black-cocks, 

 again, are often very ready to avoid a conflict, and 

 dance much more fiercely than they fight. A bird, 

 indeed, which is a very demon in the " spiel " or 



