1 86 BIRD LIFE GLIMPSES 



for half-an-hour. They stood facing each other, 

 drawn up to their full height, and, at or about the 

 same instant, each would give a little spring into the 

 air, and violently flap the wings. I would say that 

 they struck with them — that manifestly was what 

 they should have done, the rationale of the action — 

 but the curious point is that this did not seem to be 

 necessary, or, at any rate, it was often, for a consider- 

 able space of time, in abeyance. The great thing 

 appeared to be to jump, and, at the same time, to 

 flap the wings, and as long as the birds did this, 

 they seemed satisfied, though there was often a foot 

 or more of space between them. Sometimes, indeed, 

 they got closer together, and then they had the ap- 

 pearance of consciously striking at one another ; but 

 having watched them attentively, from beginning to 

 end, I came to the conclusion that this was more 

 apparent than real, and that, provided the wings 

 were waved, it mattered little whether they came in 

 contact with the adversary's person, or not. For 

 when these snipes jumped wide apart, or, at any rate, 

 at such a distance that each was quite beyond the 

 other's reach, they did not seem to be struck with 

 the futility of hitting out, under these circumstances, 

 or to be greatly bent on closing, and putting an end 

 to such a fiasco. Far from this, they went on in 

 just the same way, and, for one leap in which they 

 smote each other, there were, perhaps, a dozen in 

 which they only beat the air. I do not mean to 

 suggest that the birds were not actually and con- 

 sciously fighting, but it certainly did seem to me 

 that their principal fighting action — the blow, with 

 the leap in the air, namely — had become stereotyped 



